A federal court in the United States dismissed Google’s move to dismiss a Department of Justice antitrust case involving advertising technology on Friday, saying the government’s evidence was strong enough to proceed.
The government has argued that Google should be obliged to sell its ad manager suite, which it submitted in January. Google has categorically denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m going to deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss,” Virginia federal court Judge Leonie Brinkema remarked. Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) owns Google.
Google’s petition is the company’s latest attempt to end time-consuming and costly antitrust cases. It also requested a federal court in Washington to dismiss accusations in the government’s 2020 complaint.
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In his defense, Eric Mahr argued that the Justice Department failed to assert a large enough market share, 70%, to establish Google’s market power.
Brinkema, on the other hand, stated that criteria other than market share must be considered, such as a company’s “rapacious conduct.”
Brinkema also disputed Mahr’s claim that the government assessed Google’s acquisitions of DoubleClick and Admeld more than a decade ago in order to boost its clout in ad tech, adding that the agency admitted making a mistake.
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Mahr also claimed that the Justice Department failed to demonstrate that advertisers were harmed as a result of Google’s actions. He also claimed that the government incorrectly excluded Facebook and others from its definition of the market, referring to them as “obvious substitutes.”
