Google on Friday asked a US federal judge to dismiss the majority of an antitrust lawsuit filed by Texas and other US states that accused the search giant of abusing its dominance of the online advertising market.
Google said in his court filing that the state had failed to show that he worked illegally with Facebook, Now meta, to combat “header bidding”, a technique developed by publishers to earn more money from advertising placed on their websites. Facebook is not a defendant in the lawsuit.
The states also alleged that Google used at least three programs to force advertisers and publishers to use Google’s tools to manipulate ad auctions.
Google responded that states had a “collection of complaints” but no evidence of wrongdoing. On some of the allegations, Google argued that states waited too long to file their suit.
The company said, “They criticize Google for not designing their products to better suit the needs of their competitors, and for improving products that leave their competitors far behind. They’re the key to Google’s success.” ‘Solution’ as holding Google back.” its filing.
Google asked four of the six cases to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought back to the same court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he would continue the fight. “The company, whose motto was once ‘Don’t Be Evil’, now calls on the world to investigate the abuse of its monopoly and to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil,” he said in a statement.
The Texas lawsuit was based on state law and had two other claims against Google that were put on hold in September. The search giant asked him to be sacked not on Friday but in the future.
The lawsuit is part of a long list of antitrust investigations and federal and state lawsuits against the Big Tech platform.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
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