Judge Says Plaintiffs Can File Amended Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

A federal judge in California is giving plaintiffs a chance to file an amended lawsuit after dismissing their antitrust lawsuit against Google.

The lawsuit accuses the tech giant of unlawfully dominating web search on smartphones, Reuters reported Monday (Aug. 12).

In a ruling delivered Friday (Aug. 9), U.S. District Judge Rita Lin said the plaintiffs had not provided enough evidence showing harm from Google’s dominance of the market, according to the report.

Lin added that the plaintiffs could file an amended suit by Sept. 9, pointing to a Washington, D.C., court’s ruling in a separate lawsuit that was announced Aug. 5 and found that Google had created an illegal monopoly over search engines, the report said.

The case before the California court was filed in 2022 and alleged that Google had unlawfully become the exclusive preloaded default search engine on Apple devices, per the report.

Google has denied the allegations in both cases, per the report.

The Aug. 5 ruling by a Washington, D.C., court concluded that Google’s business practices violated antitrust laws, specifically the Sherman Act, by maintaining and abusing its monopoly power in the search and search advertising markets.

It centered on the company’s extensive and complex business practices that the plaintiffs said stifled competition and innovation. The judge’s ruling in that case outlined how Google’s practices created barriers to entry for competitors, thereby maintaining what the judge called its monopolistic status.

Google vowed to appeal the ruling. Kent Walker, president, global affairs at Google, said in a statement emailed to PYMNTS on Aug. 5: “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available.”

The Aug. 5 ruling may also impact Apple, which has a search engine agreement with Google and may have billions of dollars and several percentage points of operating margin (and profits) hanging in the balance during the continuing court battle, PYMNTS reported Tuesday (Aug. 6).

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said in the ruling that default search agreements like the Apple/Google tie-up deny Google’s competitors access to search queries and user data needed to improve their products and ad platforms.