A federal judge on Friday rejected Google’s motion to dismiss the Department of Justice’s antitrust ad technology case, saying the government’s case was strong enough to proceed.
The federal government, which filed an ad technology lawsuit in January, argued that Google must be forced to sell its suite of ad managers. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
“I’m going to deny the defendant’s motion to dismiss the case,” Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a Virginia federal court.
Google is a unit of the alphabet.
Google’s filing is the company’s latest effort to end costly, time-consuming antitrust lawsuits. He also asked a federal court in Washington to dismiss the claims in a lawsuit filed by the government in 2020.
Arguing for Google, Eric Mahr said the Department of Justice didn’t cite a market share high enough, 70%, to say that Google has market power.
Nonetheless, Brinkema said aspects beyond market share should be considered, equivalent to whether the company is guilty of “greedy behavior”.
![Google Campus in Mountain View, California.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000008237429.jpg?w=1024)
Brinkema also disagrees with Mahr’s argument that the government reviewed Google’s agreements to buy DoubleClick and Admeld greater than 10 years ago to increase its clout in ad technology, noting that the government said it had made a mistake.
Mahr also argued that the Department of Justice had not shown that advertisers suffered any harm because of this of Google’s actions. He also said the government had incorrectly excluded Facebook and other entities in its market definition, calling them “obvious substitutes.”