Google guardian Alphabet requested a US federal choose on Monday to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit alleging that the search big illegally abused its dominance of internet advertising.
The authorities, which filed the advert tech lawsuit in January together with eight states, had argued that Google ought to be pressured to promote its advert supervisor suite. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
“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 corporate mentioned in a courtroom submitting late on Monday. “Yet plaintiffs remain unable to find support for their claimed antitrust harms.”
Google argued that the case ought to be thrown out as a result of the federal government had erred in defining the internet advertising market and improperly excluded highly effective rivals comparable to Facebook. It additionally mentioned that the federal government’s estimate of Google’s advert change as having “more than 50 percent” of the market fell quick of the 70 p.c wanted to allege market energy.
The firm additionally mentioned the federal government was incorrect to say that Google’s acquisitions of DoubleClick and AdMeld, each greater than 10 years in the past, harmed competitors. Antitrust enforcers authorized each transactions on the time.
Google urged a listening to to think about the movement to dismiss. The case is being heard by US Judge Leonie Brinkema within the Eastern District of Virginia.
The Justice Department’s advert tech lawsuit follows a separate lawsuit filed in 2020, on the finish of the Trump administration, that accused Google of violating antitrust regulation to keep up its dominance in search. That case goes to trial in September.
The Biden administration has sought to toughen antitrust enforcement. Alongside the Google go well with, it additionally has a protracted record of merger challenges.
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