11 Privacy, Antitrust, and State Attorneys General 11 Privacy, Antitrust, and State Attorneys General
11.1 Introduction 11.1 Introduction
11.1.1 General Introduction 11.1.1 General Introduction
State attorneys general often bring investigations or lawsuits these days based on privacy or antitrust concerns. In the privacy sphere, the frequent absence of national, congressionally-enacted, standards have led states, either acting alone or with other states, to fill that vacuum by initiating state actions. In the antitrust sphere, states have had antitrust authority longer than the federal government, and frequently bring antitrust cases in circumstances in which the federal authorities (USDOJ or FTC) have chosen not to act. States also bring such actions in cooperation with the federal government.
11.1.2 Detailed Roadmap to Core Readings 11.1.2 Detailed Roadmap to Core Readings
This sections considers some of the hotter issues today in AG consumer protection. On the privacy front, the Citrona article describes that authority, and the next two readings show how AGs try to fill in the gaps on privacy enforcement. Once again, the question is whether this is a proper role for a state AG.
Antitrust, especially against Big Tech, is an important issue for AGs today. The CO example shows how states can work with the feds and perhaps fill in some gaps. The truncated review of Big Tech suits shows a lot of action, but not that many results to date. Should these resources be devoted elsewhere? The DOJ-states lawsuit on the JetBlue-American "alliance" shows more state-federal cooperation and that the lineups in antitrust may not mirror the red-blue divide in other AG fights.