A federal judge in the United States denied Alphabet Inc’s Google’s request to relocate a Justice Department lawsuit against it over dominance in advertising technology from Virginia to New York.
“I am going to rule against you,” Judge Leonie Brinkema told Google’s attorney.
The government, along with eight states, filed the ad tech lawsuit in January, accusing the company of abusing its dominance in the digital advertising business and arguing that it should be forced to sell its ad manager suite. In 2021, Google’s online advertising network, which includes ad manager, generated 12% of the company’s revenue.
Google has denied any wrongdoing in its ad tech operations. It declined to comment on whether it planned to appeal the venue ruling, but said it would “continue to set the record straight and demonstrate how we compete fairly in a highly dynamic and crowded industry.”
The federal court in Virginia has a reputation for having a “rocket docket” that decides cases quickly. The New York judge is hearing similar claims from a large number of plaintiffs, including one brought by the Texas attorney general in 2020. It is expected to move at a slower pace.
An attorney for Google, Eric Mahr, argued that there was a risk that the two courts would issue contradictory rulings.
According to Justice Department attorney Julia Wood, joining the larger case being heard in New York would result in significant inefficiencies for the federal government.
Wood also stated that “significant differences” existed between the Justice Department’s case and many of the New York cases. “We respectfully request that the court retain jurisdiction,” she said in court.
The Justice Department’s ad tech lawsuit comes on the heels of a separate lawsuit filed in 2020, near the end of the Trump administration, accusing Google of breaking antitrust laws in order to maintain its dominance in search. In September, the case will go to trial.
The lawsuit comes at a time when the Biden administration is looking to toughen antitrust enforcement. Not only is it attempting to rein in a tech behemoth with its Google suit, but it also faces a slew of merger challenges.
The search and advertising behemoth, which also produces a smartphone operating system and owns YouTube, is facing antitrust lawsuits all over the world, with the majority of them based on some form of abuse of dominance.