Google Seeks to Have U.S. Antitrust Case Dismissed

Arguing that the U.S. Department of Justice has failed to prove it has a monopoly in online advertising, Google has asked a federal judge to dismiss the antitrust suit against it.

“In the more than three years that it has been investigating Google’s ad tech business, the United States has received more than two million documents from Google and taken over 30 depositions of Google witnesses,” a new Google court filing notes. “Yet plaintiffs remain unable to find support for their claimed antitrust harms.”

Curiously, Google also pointed out that the DOJ asserted that Google controls over 50 percent of the online ad market, a figure the online giant does not dispute. However, Google claims that it would need to own at least 70 percent of the market to qualify as a monopolist, and it doesn’t meet that bar if one includes ads in mobile apps and digital videos. But that very specific figure has absolutely no literal basis in U.S. antitrust law: indeed, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission states that any company with at least 50 percent market share can be considered a monopoly.

Of course, the real issue here is dominance combined with conduct: if a company is powerful enough to prevent free trade and competition through its actions, it can be sued for antitrust abuses regardless of market share. “Exclusionary or predatory acts may raise antitrust concerns,” the FTC notes, and courts must decide if “the willful acquisition or maintenance of [its market] power [is] distinguished from growth or development as a consequence of a superior product, business acumen, or historic accident.”

And that is where Google runs afoul of the law.

In its January antitrust lawsuit, the DOJ explained that “Google’s anticompetitive behavior raised barriers to entry to artificially high levels, forced key competitors to abandon the market for ad tech tools, dissuaded potential competitors from joining the market, and left Google’s few remaining competitors marginalized and unfairly disadvantaged.” It is worth pointing out that Google earns 80 percent of its revenues from advertising, so protecting that market is not just a concern, but the firm’s only real concern.

“The DOJ’s lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law and we will continue to defend against it in court,” Google vice president Dan Taylor—who oversees the company’s ad business—said.

The case is being heard by U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia.