Google on Friday asked a US federal judge to dismiss a majority of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Texas and other US states that accused the search giant of abusing its dominance in the online advertising market.
Google said in its lawsuit that the states had failed to demonstrate that it was illegally working with Facebook, now Meta, to counter “header bidding,” a technology publishers were developing to monetize ads placed on their websites. Facebook is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
The states had also alleged that Google had used at least three programs to manipulate ad auctions to force advertisers and publishers to use Google’s tools.
Google replied that the states had a “collection of grievances” but no evidence of wrongdoing. In some allegations, Google argued that states waited too long to file a lawsuit.
“They criticize Google for not designing its products to better meet the needs of its rivals and for making improvements to those products that leave its competitors too far behind. They see the ‘solution’ to Google’s success as a barrier to Google,” the company said in a statement. his declaration.
Google asked to dismiss four of the six counts with bias, meaning it couldn’t be brought back to the same court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said they would continue the fight. “The company whose motto was ‘Don’t Be Evil’ is now asking the world to investigate their blatant monopoly abuse and see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil,” it said in a statement.
The Texas lawsuit had two other claims under state law and filed against Google, which were held in September. The search giant did not ask for his resignation on Friday, but it can in the future.
The lawsuit is part of a long list of antitrust investigations and federal and state litigation against the Big Tech platforms.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
