In January, Google was sued by Texas, Indiana, Washington State, and Columbia.
To get through the clutter of digital advertising, consumer location is essential.
Over the past year, Google has paid EUR 8.25 billion in EU antitrust fines.

Google, owned by Alphabet, will shell out close to $400 million (about Rs. 3,200 crore) to resolve claims that it illegally tracked users' positions, according to two people familiar with the situation. According to the sources, the announcement will occur as soon as Monday.

According to the sources, the lawsuit, which also names Oregon, is a hint of growing legal difficulties for the internet corporation from state attorneys general who have recently been fiercely criticising the firm's user monitoring tactics. In October 2022, Arizona settled a related lawsuit it had brought against Google for $85 million (about Rs. 690 crore).

In January, the states of Texas, Indiana, Washington, and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Google for what they deemed to be dishonest location-tracking methods that violated consumers' privacy. Requests for comment from Google and Oregon did not immediately receive a response.

More than any other provider of online advertisements, Google generated $111 billion (almost Rs. 8,99,100 crore) in revenue from advertising in the first half of this year. The location of a consumer is crucial for helping a marketer cut through the digital noise to make the advertisement more relevant and catch the consumer's eye.

According to a report from earlier this month, European antitrust authorities are looking into Alphabet subsidiary Google's Play Store. This could subject the US tech giant to a further billion-euro fine. Following three probes into its business practises, Google has paid EUR 8.25 billion (roughly Rs. 67,900 crore) in fines to the EU for antitrust violations over the past ten years.

Antitrust authorities in the EU are looking into whether Google's threat to ban apps from its Play Store if developers don't utilise its own pricing system has harmed the developers. Developers have criticised the fees that Google and Apple collect at their mobile app shops, claiming that they are excessive.