US judge rejects Google’s bid to move advertising case to New York

Alexandria, Virginia:

A US federal judge on Friday rejected a bid by Alphabet Inc’s Google to move a Justice Department lawsuit against dominance in advertising technology by Google from Virginia to New York.

Judge Leonie Brinkema told a lawyer for Google, “I’m going to rule against you.”

The government, which filed the Ad Tech lawsuit with eight states in January, accused the company of abusing its dominance in the digital advertising business and argued that it should be forced to sell its Ads Manager suite, which is part of the company’s 12 Brought in % share. revenue in 2021.

Google has denied any wrongdoing in running its ad tech business. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it plans to appeal the venue’s decision.

Virginia federal court has a reputation for being a “rocket docket” that decides cases quickly. New York judges are hearing similar claims, but from multiple plaintiffs, including a case brought by the Texas attorney general in 2020. It is expected to progress more slowly.

Eric Maher, a lawyer for Google, argued that there was a risk that the two courts would come out with conflicting decisions.

Justice Department attorney Julia Wood said there would be significant inefficiencies for the federal government if it were required to get involved in the larger ongoing case in New York.

Julia Wood also said that there were “meaningful differences” between the Justice Department’s case and several New York cases.

The Justice Department’s ad tech lawsuit follows a separate lawsuit filed in 2020, at the tail end of the Trump administration, which accused Google of violating antitrust law to maintain its dominance in search. That case comes up for hearing in September.

The lawsuit comes as the Biden administration seeks to toughen antitrust enforcement. It’s not only trying to rein in a tech giant with its Google suite, but it also has a long list of merger challenges.

The search and advertising giant, which also makes a smartphone operating system and owns YouTube, faces antitrust lawsuits around the world, most of them based on abuse of dominance of one kind or another.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)