A blockbuster lawsuit by the US government against Google’s ad business will go to trial in September, according to a federal judge.
The trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 9, District Judge Leonie Brinkema said in court documents filed Monday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The lawsuit strikes at the core of Google’s business. Advertising made up roughly $66 billion of the $86 billion in revenue reported by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, in the most recent quarterly financial results the company released last week.
The case regarding Google’s advertising technology is the first antitrust suit against a Big Tech company brought by the Biden administration, which has pledged to vigorously enforce the nation’s competition laws, particularly in the tech sector.
The DOJ and multiple states have alleged in the ad-tech case that Google gobbled up rivals through anticompetitive mergers and bullied publishers and advertisers into using the company’s proprietary ad technology products.
Google has insisted that the advertising technology ecosystem is competitive and vibrant, and has said the government’s case reflects “a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow.”
The advertising case is the second major antitrust action targeting Google’s economic dominance in recent years. It follows a multi-week trial last fall that challenged Google’s prime position as the default search engine on millions of devices. The search case was first filed by the Justice Department during the Trump administration.
Closing arguments in the Google search case are expected to take place in the spring. Both cases could potentially upend Google’s tremendous power and influence over how consumers experience the internet.
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