Google Requests Dismissal of Justice Dept. Antitrust Suit

Google has asked a federal court to throw out an antitrust lawsuit. 

The request addressed the U.S. Justice Department’s suit filed in 2020 that alleges that the Alphabet firm violated antitrust law in order to uphold its dominant position in the search market, Reuters reported Tuesday (Dec. 13). 

The documents laying out Google’s reasoning behind the request for a summary judgment were sealed, according to the report. 

The case is set to go to trial in September 2023.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for reportedly monopolizing search and ad markets. 

The DOJ said at the time that 80% of U.S. search queries are conducted on search channels that the tech giant owns or controls. 

The antitrust lawsuit alleged Google has used its dominant position in the online search market unfairly against competitors. 

“The Google of today is a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet, and one of the wealthiest companies on the planet, with a market value of $1 trillion and annual revenue exceeding $160 billion,” the DOJ said in the suit filed in October 2020. “For many years, Google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising — the cornerstones of its empire.” 

The DOJ said at the time that Google crafted a series of “interlocking contracts” that has helped fashion monopolies, that the company “shares” monopoly profits with distributors in order to secure prime status as the per-set default across browsers and devices, and that it has effectively “foreclosed” competitors from gaining scale in the industry. 

Reuters reported Tuesday that when the lawsuit was filed in 2020, Google said that the suit was “deeply flawed,” that it relies on “dubious antitrust arguments,” that the firm has gained its standing in the search market because of the quality of its product and that it has used legal means to promote search. 

Google, together with fellow tech giant Apple, also faces an antitrust investigation in the United Kingdom. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority said Nov. 22 that it is ramping up the investigation after receiving widespread support for the move that it first proposed in June.