Google asks judge to dismiss most of antitrust lawsuit
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The giant tech company asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss the majority of the allegations in an antitrust case brought by the state of Texas.
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Will the antitrust lawsuit be dismissed?
Google asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss the majority of the allegations in an antitrust case brought by the state of Texas.
In the filing, the giant tech company claimed that the Texas complaint isn't "credible" and that the state of Texas failed to prove that the company's ad business violated any antitrust laws.
In a blog post, Google's Director of Economic Policy Adam Cohen said, "AG Paxton’s allegations are more heat than light, and we don’t believe they meet the legal standard to send this case to trial,” adding that the lawsuit misrepresents "our business, products, and motives, and we are moving to dismiss it based on its failures to offer plausible antitrust claims."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched the action in late 2020, alleging that Google improperly maintained a monopoly in internet advertising. Texas renewed the suit this week with a fresh complaint that was originally filed in November but redacted before a court ordered the facts of the complaint be made public.
The case has been joined by Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico.
According to Google, Paxton "overlooks, or misstates, a litany of clear facts,” including charges that the firm struck an agreement with Facebook to protect its online ad dominance by crushing a new ad-buying procedure known as "header bidding."
According to The New York Times, Facebook announced the partnership in 2018 but did not mention that Google provided “special information and speed advantages to help the company succeed in the auctions that it did not offer to other partners — even including a guaranteed win rate."
Meta, which is embroiled in its own antitrust issues, has urged the court to dismiss an antitrust action that might compel it to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, but a judge decided earlier this month that the refiled claim will be allowed to proceed.
