Justice Department antitrust lawsuit targeting Google’s ad tech business to be heard in September, federal judge rules

Washington
CNN
—

A major U.S. government lawsuit against Google’s advertising business will be heard in September, a federal judge says.

The trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 9, District Judge Leonie Brinkema said in court documents filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

lawsuit It shakes the core of Google’s business. In Google’s parent company Alphabet’s latest quarterly results released last week, advertising accounted for about $66 billion of its $86 billion in revenue.

Lawsuits related to Google’s advertising technology This is the first antitrust lawsuit against a major tech company brought by the Biden administration, which has pledged to vigorously enforce domestic competition laws, especially in the tech sector.

The Justice Department and several states allege in ad tech lawsuits that Google swallowed rivals through anticompetitive mergers and bullied publishers and advertisers into using its own ad tech products.

Google maintains that the ad technology ecosystem is competitive and vibrant, and that the government’s lawsuit will “slow innovation, raise ad prices, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.” “This reflects a false argument that

The advertising lawsuit is the second major antitrust case targeting Google’s economic dominance in recent years. This follows a weeks-long trial last fall that challenged Google’s dominant position as the default search engine on millions of devices. The search suit was first brought by the Justice Department during the Trump administration.

Closing arguments in the Google Search lawsuit are expected to be held in the spring. Both cases could undermine Google’s vast power and influence over consumers’ internet experiences.