A federal judge on Friday denied Google’s motion to dismiss a Justice Department antitrust case focused on promoting technology.
The federal government, which filed the ad tech lawsuit in January, has argued that Google must be forced to sell its ad manager suite. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m going to disclaim the defendant’s motion to dismiss,” Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a federal court in Virginia. Google is a unit of Alphabet.
Google argued that the case must be thrown out because the federal government had erred in defining the internet advertising market and improperly excluded powerful competitors equivalent to Facebook. It also said that the federal government’s estimate of Google’s ad exchange as having “greater than 50%” of the market fell in need of the 70% needed to allege market power.
Google’s motion is the corporate’s latest effort to finish costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits. It also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss claims in a 2020 lawsuit filed by the federal government.
Google’s motion is the corporate’s latest effort to finish costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits.AFP via Getty Images
Alphabet shares were down 1.5% on Friday.
