By Diane Bartz, David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google will pay about $400 million to settle a complaint brought by a group of states over allegations the search and advertising giant illegally tracked users’ locations, two people familiar with the matter said.
The announcement will come as early as Monday, the sources said.
The lawsuit, which includes Oregon, the people said, is a sign of mounting legal headaches for the tech company from state attorneys general who have aggressively targeted the firm’s user tracking practices in recent months.
Arizona filed a similar case against Google and settled it for $85 million in October 2022.
Texas, Indiana, Washington State and the District of Columbia sued Google in January over what they called deceptive location-tracking practices that invade users’ privacy.
Google and Oregon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google had revenue of $111 billion from advertising in the first half of this year, more than any other seller of online ads. A consumer’s location is key to helping an advertiser cut through the digital clutter to make the ad more relevant and grab the consumer’s attention.
(Writing by Alexandra Alper; Editing by Anna Driver)
