Google is under some serious fire for its anti-competitive measures. It is the first big tech company that’s subjected to this huge antitrust lawsuit by the Biden administration.
Google Ads accounts for more than 50% of the company’s revenue and the plaintiffs are demanding to force Google to sell its ad manager suite. So if the trial doesn’t go in their favor, the company might be in trouble.
On Monday, the documents were filed and District Judge Leonie Brinkema announced the date of the trial to be September 9 in Virginia.
Although the DOJ (Department of Justice) and the multiple US states that have accused Google requested a July date, the judge denied their request stating that scheduling a trial in the summer would be logistically challenging.
What Exactly Happened?
The lawsuit was first filed in January 2023 by the DOJ (Department of Justice) and some other states. It accused Google of violating competition laws. Antitrust laws are developed to ensure healthy competition so that no one company gains monopoly in the market.
Google said that if the lawsuit doesn’t go in its favor, it will “slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”
However, according to the allegations, Google has been rapidly acquiring all its competitors, some even through anticompetitive mergers.
The company has also been accused of forcing publishers and advertisers to Google ad products which has further led to a decline in the business of its competitors.
It not only harmed other small businesses but apparently led to a sharp increase in advertising costs while the company continued to rake in massive profits. Google has obviously denied all allegations.
Neither Google nor representatives from the DOJ were available for any comment on the trial date announced by the court.
Troubled Times Ahead For Google
This isn’t the only lawsuit that the tech company has to face this year. Last year, Google faced another accusation of illegal monopoly by the DOJ for making its search engine the default option for millions of users.
As per reports, Google paid more than $10 billion to Apple and some other companies to ensure it’s always the default search engine on every device.
In this case, as well, Google was accused of spending billions to intentionally stifle competition. According to the prosecutor, the company negotiated exclusive contacts with phone manufacturers and network providers to make Google the most prominent search engine.
This case has been described as one of the largest antitrust lawsuits since the case with Microsoft in 1990.
The allegations made were countered by attorney John Schmidtlein who was representing Google. He said that the reason why Apple chose Google again and again is because they felt it’s the best search engine for their users.
The final decision of the trial is still pending. A hearing has been scheduled for May this year. Google is also gearing up to face another lawsuit filed by Texas and other states in March 2025. The trial will question its ad tech practices.
Google has recently lost an antitrust trial against Epic Games over its monopolistic app store practices. With so many anti-competitive allegations around, Google can quickly find itself in knee-deep trouble.
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