A federal judge in the United States has rejected Google’s request to dismiss an antitrust case related to advertising technology brought by the Department of Justice, stating that the government’s case had sufficient strength to proceed.
The lawsuit, the latest legal action brought by the government against Google, accuses the company of unlawfully monopolising the way ads are served online by excluding competitors.
The complaint also claims that Google engaged in a deliberate effort to take control of the various advanced technological tools utilised by publishers, advertisers, and brokers in the ad tech industry, thus undermining fair competition.
Google has submitted a motion to the court. The motion seeked the dismissal of allegations made in a 2020 lawsuit filed by the government, which was also filed in a federal court in Washington.
In a federal court in Virginia Judge Leonie Brinkema said she is going to deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss.
Eric Mahr, representing Google, argued that the Justice Department’s accusation that Google held market power was invalid since it only had a 70% market share, which wasn’t high enough.
However, Brinkema countered that other factors needed to be considered, such as whether a company was engaged in “rapacious conduct.”
Brinkema also disagreed with Mahr’s contention that the government had previously scrutinized Google’s acquisitions of DoubleClick and Admeld over a decade ago to enhance its ad tech dominance. She pointed out that the government had admitted to making a mistake in this regard.
In addition, Mahr contended that the Justice Department failed to demonstrate that advertisers were harmed as a result of Google’s actions.
He further claimed that the government wrongly left out Facebook and other companies from its market definition, stating that they were “clear substitutes.”
Google has suffered its second defeat in the federal court in Alexandria. The tech giant had attempted to combine the case with another ongoing lawsuit in New York, which lasted for years.
