By Brody Mullins And Rolfe Winkler
WASHINGTON--A key U.S. senator plans to ask the Federal Trade
Commission for information about meetings it had with Google Inc.
executives during the time it was investigating the company for
possible antitrust violations.
Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), who chairs the Senate's antitrust
panel, will conduct a preliminary inquiry to determine what
conversations took place between the FTC and the Internet giant
during the probe, people in his office said on Monday.
The senator could later expand his inquiry to include
conversations people in the White House had with the FTC and
Google, these people said.
The inquiry comes after The Wall Street Journal reported last
week that there was a flurry of meetings involving Google and
government officials at important stages of the commission's
investigation into whether the company violated antitrust law.
The company on Monday declined to comment on the Senate
development. On Google's public policy blog Friday, Google's Rachel
Whetstone said the purpose of the company's meetings with White
House officials during the time "were not to discuss the antitrust
investigation."
At a Monday White House press briefing, spokesman Eric Schultz
said the FTC is "an independent organization, which makes decisions
independently." As for meetings between Google officials and White
House aides, Mr. Schultz said, "We meet with business leaders all
the time."
The FTC last week said it is routine and proper for the
commission to meet with officials at companies under review. The
FTC's "enforcement decisions are driven by the applicable law and
evidence in each case," spokesman Justin Cole said.
Mr. Lee, a longtime critic of Google, also wants to know how the
FTC accidentally released a confidential staff report recommending
filing an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
The Journal received a partial copy of the report from a Freedom
of Information Act request. After the Journal told the FTC it had
the report, the FTC asked for the report back and said it was
released by mistake.
The staff report, which was prepared by the Bureau of
Competition, called on the FTC to file an antitrust lawsuit against
Google on three of the four issues under review. It was one of
several recommendations prepared by divisions within the
commission. The FTC's economics bureau recommended against a
lawsuit.
Both internal FTC bureaus recommended against a lawsuit on the
question of whether Google violated antitrust law in its prized
search-engine business. However, the Bureau of Competition report
was highly critical of Google's business and showed deep splits
within the FTC over how to handle the matter.
The 160-page staff critique concluded that Google's "conduct has
resulted--and will result--in real harm to consumers and to
innovation in the online search and advertising markets."
In response to the article about the staff recommendation,
Google General Counsel Kent Walker said in a written statement the
FTC ultimately "agreed that there was no need to take action on how
we rank and display search results" on its Web browser.
"Speculation about potential consumer harm turned out to be
entirely wrong," he added.
"Google plainly put a very heavy spin on the results of the
FTC's investigation to downplay the company's harmful practices,"
said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), another member of the
antitrust panel. "This market clearly deserves exacting and ongoing
oversight, and the FTC has a continuing obligation to monitor and
investigate."
Write to Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com and Rolfe
Winkler at rolfe.winkler@wsj.com
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