Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

Attorney General Bob Ferguson today partnered with a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general to file a federal antitrust lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit asserts that the technology giant illegally leverages its dominance in the online search and search advertising markets to stifle competing platforms, drive advertisers away from rival search engines, and limit competing specialized sellers’ ability to bring customers directly to their sites from general Google search results.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook asserting the company formed an illegal monopoly in the personal social networking market. The company formed this monopoly by buying or constraining potential competitors, usually mobile apps, in their infancy — including rivals Instagram and WhatsApp.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that Christopher Lischewski, formerly the CEO of Bumble Bee brand tuna, will pay $100,000 to Washington for his role in a canned tuna price-fixing scheme that artificially inflated the price of tuna from the three largest national brands: Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that the consumer protection and other affirmative litigation divisions of the Attorney General’s Office have recovered more than $650 million for Washingtonians and state and tribal governments since January 2013. This represents a return on investment of $35 for every $1 the state has spent on funding for this work.
A report released today details Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s two-year investigation that has eliminated no-poach clauses in franchise agreements nationwide for every company that has three or more locations in Washington. As a result of Ferguson’s initiative to end the practice, which he launched in 2018, millions of workers at 237 corporate franchise chains across the country are now protected from no-poach clauses.
SEATTLE — Today Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a civil lawsuit against Starkist, one of the world’s largest canned tuna manufacturers and the former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, another large tuna manufacturer, over a price-fixing conspiracy that drove up the cost of packaged tuna for more than a decade, costing Washingtonians at least $6 million. Ferguson’s lawsuit makes Washington the first state to bring a case over this conspiracy.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced nearly $20 million in checks will begin going out today to nearly 8,400 Washington consumers as a result of Ferguson’s recovery in price-fixing lawsuits against seven manufacturers of cathode ray tubes, or CRTs. The minimum check to consumers will be for $25. The median check will be for $52.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that an Attorney General’s Office attorney will testify tomorrow before Congress about his office’s initiative to end no-poach clauses nationwide.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced his initiative to end the use of no-poach clauses nationwide has reached 100 corporate chains.
SEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced the latest progress in his initiative to end the use of no-poach clauses nationwide. In order to avoid a lawsuit, eight additional corporate chains eliminated their no-poach practices nationwide by entering into legally enforceable agreements to remove the clauses from franchise contracts. The eight chains have 45 locations in Washington and more than 1,400 locations nationwide. This brings the total number of corporate chains that have signed legally binding agreements with Ferguson to eliminate no-poach clauses from all their franchise agreements nationwide to 93, representing more than 140,000 locations.

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