- Washington AG Bob Ferguson sued Google, Inc. over allegations that it failed to maintain appropriate records of political advertising revenues in violation of Washington’s campaign disclosure laws.
- The complaint alleges that Google failed to retain and make available to the public legally mandated information, including the cost of advertisements, and the names of the persons or organizations sponsoring and purchasing them. The complaint further alleges that in response to a similar suit by the AG’s office in 2018, Google announced that its advertising networks would no longer accept political advertisements for state or local elections, but political advertisements continued to be run on Google’s platform.
- The complaint seeks injunctive relief, civil penalties, and attorneys’ fees and costs.
- As previously reported, in 2020, AG Ferguson reached a settlement over similar allegations with Twitter, Inc., in which Twitter paid $100,000 to the state.