Judge allows Google antitrust case to move ahead in Virginia
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MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A judge has rejected a request from Google to transfer a federal antitrust lawsuit against it from Virginia to New York.
The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema is a victory for the Justice Department and several states, including Virginia, that sued Google earlier this year and wanted to keep the case in the commonwealth.
The lawsuit alleges that Google holds a virtual monopoly in online advertising that works to the detriment of consumers. The complaint alleged that Google “corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising.”
The suit seeks to force Google to divest itself of the businesses of controlling the technical tools that manage the buying, selling and auctioning of digital display advertising, remaining with search — its core business — and other products and services including YouTube, Gmail and cloud services.
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, said previously that the suit “doubles down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”
