Google has filed for summary judgment, asking a federal court in Virginia to dismiss the US Justice Department’s lawsuit accusing the company of anti-competitive practices in the online advertising market.
A request for summary judgment is a legal procedure in which a party asks the court to rule in his favor without a full trial. Filing such a motion allows a party to avoid the time and expense of a full trial if the court agrees that there are no genuine factual disputes to be decided.
In January 2023, the US Department of Justice, along with 8 state attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit alleges that Google exploited its dominance in the digital advertising business by using its control of various ad technology tools and platforms to drive more business to its ad technology products, thus corrupting legitimate competition in the ad technology industry.
God The US government claims That Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, which handles the buying and selling of ads and integrates the exchange where the bids take place, from its core business of search, YouTube and other services. This will likely help restore competition in the digital advertising market, as Google currently takes a significant commission on every advertising dollar that flows through its systems, which is seen as a sign that the current online ad market is “completely broken and inefficient”.
In response to the lawsuit, Google claimed that its advertising business, which includes its ad manager tools, accounts for only about 12% of the company’s total revenue. So it is not the core of Google’s activity.
Google claims the government’s lawsuit goes too far and doesn’t actually target the specific business practices the government claims are problematic. Google says the lawsuit attacks normal business decisions and product improvements that benefited customers, not illegal anti-competitive actions.
Google even disputes the claim that it has an illegal monopoly in online advertisingarguing that there is strong competition in the market from other big players such as Facebook, Amazon and traditional media companies.
That’s why Google aims to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit on the grounds that its practices were legal, customer-focused and not indicative of anti-competitive behavior. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in federal court in Virginia set the trial for the Justice Department’s case against Google for September.
The judge has the authority to limit the scope of the claim before the trial or even dismiss the case entirely. Both Google and the Ministry of Justice can request summary judgment, which includes a detailed examination of the facts and merits of the case to determine whether there is a basis for ruling without a full trial.
Through Reuters