Google Responds to U.S. Antitrust Suit
- Paul Thurrott
- Dec 22, 2020
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29
In its first formal response to the antitrust suit brought against it by the DOJ and 11 states, Google claims it has done nothing wrong.
“Google generally denies the legal claims asserted in Plaintiffs’ Complaint,” a new Google filing reads. (You can find a copy here.) “Google further states that for nearly a quarter-century, Google’s mission has been to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. To further that mission, Google has developed, continually innovated, and promoted Google Search for use by consumers all over the world. People use Google Search because they choose to, not because they are forced to or because they cannot easily find alternative ways to search for information on the Internet.”
Amusingly, Google does admit to some of the DOJ and state assertions right upfront.
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“Google admits that it was founded in a Menlo Park garage 22 years ago,” the filing notes, “and that it created an innovative way to search the internet, Google Search, but denies the remaining allegations … Google admits that its parent company, Alphabet Inc., has a roughly $1 trillion market capitalization and had revenue exceeding $160 billion in 2019, but denies that these allegations apply to Google, the Defendant in this case.”
The 42-page Google filing makes numerous statements about the allegations against it in what is mostly a point-by-point rebuttal structured as above, in which it “agrees” with basic facts about the company but then disagrees with the actual allegations of wrongdoing. In some cases, it simply just notes that it denies specific allegations without any explanation. It’s all pretty tedious.
And then it gets even more ridiculous. Google concludes the filing with a prayer. Yes, really.
“Google prays … that the Complaint against Google be dismissed in its entirety, with prejudice; that Google be awarded its attorneys’ fees and costs and expenses of the suit; and that the Court award such other and further relief to Google as the Court deems just and proper.”
Oh brother.