On Friday, a U.S. district court refused Google’s petition to dismiss a Department of Justice advertising technology antitrust complaint.
The government’s January ad tech lawsuit demanded Google surrender its ad management suite. Google denies wrongdoing.
“I’m going to deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss,” Virginia federal judge Leonie Brinkema stated. Alphabet Inc. owns Google.
Google claimed the lawsuit should be dismissed because the government erroneously defined the internet advertising market and omitted strong rivals like Facebook. In addition, the government’s assessment of Google’s ad exchange’s “more than 50%” market share fell short of the 70% needed to assert market dominance.
Google’s petition is another attempt to end costly, time-consuming antitrust cases. It also sought a Washington federal court to reject a 2020 government case.