What you need to know
- Alphabet asks a U.S. federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the DOJ.
- In a court filing early this week, Google urged for a hearing of the motion to dismiss.
- The DOJ filed the lawsuit early this year on Google’s practices in the ad tech business.
Google is not new to lawsuits from the U.S. government, whether from the FTC or the states. Most of the time, such lawsuits end up with Google agreeing to a settlement by shelling out millions. There are other instances of Google giving it back to plaintiffs. One such incident occurred early this week.
According to Reuters, Google’s parent firm, Alphabet, requested that a US antitrust lawsuit against the search engine on its alleged dominance in the online advertising market be dismissed.
The US Justice Department launched a case against Google in January for those unaware. The lawsuit claims that Google maintains its market dominance in digital advertising by engaging in anti-competitive behavior. In response, Google said the lawsuit was unjustified and would reverse years of innovation.
A new court filing from the company early this week in which Alphabet mentioned that Google has been cooperating with the U.S. by providing numerous documents and witnesses as proof over the past three years of investigation.
“In the more than three years that it has been investigating Google’s ad tech business, the United States has received more than two million documents from Google and taken over thirty depositions of Google witnesses,” the company said.
“Yet plaintiffs remain unable to find support for their claimed antitrust harms.”
Further, as for the lawsuit filed this January, Google states that it should immediately be dismissed as it not only fails to define the online advertising market, but that the company’s alleged “more than 50%” market power falls under the threshold for market dominance. Additionally, the search giant insists it is unfair for the U.S. to leave out its competition, such as Meta, which also has a very prominent position in the digital ad market.
The Reuters report further indicates that Google has urged a hearing to dismiss the lawsuit to the U.S. Federal Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia.
This is not the first time (and certainly will not be the last) Google has faced investigations into its digital ad tech business and is not bound to the U.S. market altogether. Last year, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority probed into Google’s antitrust violations in digital ad tech. Google has responded to Android Central, saying:
“Advertising tools from Google and many competitors help websites and apps fund their content, and help businesses of all sizes effectively reach their customers.”
