Google faces more threat of forced sale of ad units than US lawsuit |
January 27 (Reuters) – Legal experts, USA of the government Google( GOOGL.O ) is more likely to be forced to abandon its core business in an antitrust lawsuit it filed this week than a group of states that have pursued a similar case for three years, legal experts said.
USA Filed Tuesday in federal court in Virginia by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division complaint Googleis trying to force it to sell part of its ad tech division.
Claim 2020It echoes claims in another antitrust case brought against Google in New York federal court by a coalition of 17 states led by Texas. Both lawsuits accuse Alphabet Inc. of abusing its dominance in online advertising and Google categorically rejects it. .
According to experts, USA A court would be more likely to rule on structural changes in a company with nationwide influence if the government had made the argument, not just a group of states.
“To the extent that any federal court would be concerned with breaking up Google, it would be more comfortable doing so if the plaintiff is the federal government,” said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.
Still, Allensworth and other experts were skeptical that a court would force the sale of a business unit at a company as large and central to the economy as Google. Google’s ad tech business accounted for about 12% of the company’s revenue in 2021 and plays a significant role in its overall sales.
In the states’ case, a New York federal judge in September rejected Google’s bid to dismiss it entirely. However court of the company Facebookhas denied some allegations, including allegations that it entered into an illegal partnership agreement with its parent company Meta Platforms Inc ( META.O ).
The states’ lawsuit calls for any defense the court deems appropriate, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said all possible penalties are on the table. The Justice Department lawsuit seeks, among other things, the sale of at least Google’s ad manager suite.
New York University law professor Harry First said that the federal “complaint It has a feature that Google’s other complaint doesn’t have.” “It shows me that they are very serious about really changing the structure of Google’s ad tech business.”
The Texas Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment, while the Justice Department declined to comment. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
States occasionally sue companies for alleged violations of antitrust laws, but the federal government sometimes either intervenes directly or files its own case to assert its nationwide perspective.
While judges don’t always follow the federal government when it intervenes in state antitrust disputes, opinions from the DOJ and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission can play a big role in their decisions, legal experts said.
For example, after New York and 12 other states sued in 2019 to block the merger of wireless carriers T-Mobile and Sprint, the U.S. government argued that the deal should go forward because it village will improve wireless coverage in locations.
In this case, the DOJ ordered the court to “unitcalled for a nationwide perspective” and to reject the states’ demand for a ban on collusion. Court agreed and the merger then a separate settlement way passed with certain conditions. Through the Ministry of Justice.
“If the ultimate goal is to change the structure of the company, the federal government is in a stronger position,” said Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh.
Google also faces two largely parallel antitrust lawsuits from states and the federal government alleging an illegal dominance in online search. The company also denied these accusations.
Reporting by Jack Queen and Mike Scarcella; Edited by Amy Stevens and Cynthia Osterman
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2023-01-27 20:46:54
Source – reuters
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