Google’s lawyer told a federal judge that Alphabet Inc.’s 2018 advertising agreement between Google and Meta Platform Inc. does not violate antitrust law because it does not prohibit Facebook from using rival ad exchanges.
Texas and a group of other states sued Google over the settlement, renamed JD Blue, as well as other antitrust conduct, alleging that the search giant used technology to buy, sell and serve ads online. allowed to monopolize the market. Both Google and Meta, which are not defendants in the case, have both defended the settlement and denied any wrongdoing.
“There is nothing illegal in the written agreement,” Eric Maher, a Google attorney, told a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. He argued that the deal expanded competition because it allowed Facebook to bid on ads sold through Google’s Ad Exchange. From websites or mobile apps in your Facebook Audience Network.
But Ashley Keller, an attorney representing Texas, said Google struck a deal to give Meta profits on an exchange that runs for buying and selling ads. In return, the social media company abandoned plans to adopt a new type of technology that would reduce Google’s online advertising monopoly, he said.
“They were smart enough to write down their agreement, which could result in criminal sanctions,” Keller said. “No one wants to go to jail and wear an orange jumpsuit.”
Google has asked Judge P. Kevin Castell to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit, arguing that all conduct targeted by the states is legal.
“Google doesn’t have to design any of its products with rivals’ interests in mind,” Maher told Castel on Wednesday. The state wants to “turn Google into an advertising tech utility.”
But Keller of Texas argued that Google has consistently taken steps to make it harder for rivals to compete, such as manipulating auctions for online advertising to ensure Google’s products win. When those efforts weren’t successful, Google would buy out the competition, as it did with Meta, he said. The Google-meta pact, which was first made public in the states’ lawsuit, is now also under scrutiny by regulators in Europe and the UK.
“There are privileges that Google gives to its own buying tools,” Keller said. “It’s just naked antitrust behavior to make sure others can’t disrupt the monopoly.”
Castel, who asked dozens of questions about Google’s ad tech tools and the online advertising market during the two-hour hearing, said the arguments were “helpful” but did not indicate how, or when, he might rule.
Lawyers for the Justice Department — which sued Google for allegedly monopolizing the search market in 2020 and is separately investigating the company’s ad tech business — attended Wednesday’s hearing. The agency may file its own antitrust lawsuit against Google for monopolizing the ad tech market as soon as next month.
The case pertains to Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, 21-MD-03010, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed.
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