Google’s online ads are the subject of a US antitrust case that Alphabet wants dismissed

The government had contended that Google ought to be made to sell its ad management suite in the ad tech lawsuit that it and eight states brought in January. Any wrongdoing has been refuted by Google.

The firm stated in a court declaration late on Monday that the government had taken over thirty witness depositions and received over two million documents from Google during the more than three years that it has been looking into its ad tech division. But the plaintiffs are still unable to provide evidence of the alleged antitrust harms.

Because the government misdefined the internet advertising market and unlawfully left out significant rivals like Facebook, Google contended that the lawsuit should be dismissed. Additionally, it stated that the government’s estimation of Google’s ad exchange’s market share as “greater than 50%” fell short of the required 70% to qualify as market power.

The business also argued that it was incorrect for the government to claim that Google’s purchases of DoubleClick and AdMeld, both of which occurred more than ten years ago, hurt competition. The purchases were made at the time permitted by antitrust authorities.

Alphabet wants the American antitrust case against Google’s internet advertisements dismissed.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, requested on Monday that a U.S. federal judge reject a complaint brought by the Justice Department that the search engine had illegally abused its market dominance in online advertising.

In order to examine the request to dismiss, Google urged a hearing. In the Eastern District of Virginia, U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema is hearing the case.

The ad tech complaint from the Justice Department is the follow-up to a different case that was brought in 2020, at the end of the Trump administration, and accused Google of breaking the law to maintain its monopoly in search. In September, that lawsuit will go to trial.

Antitrust enforcement has been made tougher under the Biden administration. It also faces numerous merger-related obstacles in addition to the Google lawsuit.