WASHINGTON—A judge on Thursday began hearing Google’s arguments for why the landmark antitrust case over its search-engine dominance should be tossed instead of going to trial later this year. Both sides are weighing in before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Google’s request for judgment in its favor in a 2020 civil lawsuit brought by the Justice Department. Google is also asking Judge Mehta to toss out a similar lawsuit brought by a bipartisan coalition of 38 state attorneys general. Read More...
Reuters
Google to ask judge to toss U.S. antitrust lawsuit over search dominance
Google will likely argue Thursday that the U.S. Justice Department’s allegations that it broke antitrust law to build and maintain its dominance of search are flawed and that its lawsuit should be thrown out, according to court filings. The government, which filed its lawsuit in the waning days of the Trump administration, will likely defend its complaint, which said that Alphabet’s Google acts illegally in paying billions of dollars each year to smartphone makers like Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung, carriers like Verizon and browsers like Mozilla to be the default search for their customers. Google has argued in court filings that the payments are legal revenue-sharing deals and not illegal efforts to exclude rivals.
