Va. Judge Denies Google’s Motion to Dismiss Digital Ad Antitrust Complaint

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema for Eastern Virginia in Alexandria denied, without an opinion, Google’s motion to dismiss the antitrust complaint brought by DOJ and eight states to thwart Google’s alleged monopoly control over the digital advertising market, said her signed order Friday (docket 2304110059).

Google’s March 27 motion called the complaint deficient for its failure to allege plausible relevant markets (see 2303290038). The motion came just under two weeks after Brinkema denied Google’s previous motion to transfer the case to the Southern District of New York, where similar antitrust cases are consolidated in the multidistrict litigation under Senior U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel.

DOJ urged the judge to deny the motion to dismiss on grounds that it improperly attempted to adjudicate "fact-intensive" market definition questions at the early motion to dismiss stage (see 2304110059). Google's motion to dismiss also should be denied because it misstated the law on market share for Sherman Act claims, said DOJ.

The decision by the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit affirming a district court ruling that 46 states, plus the District of Columbia and Guam, waited too long to bring an antitrust lawsuit against Meta for alleged anticompetitive conduct in its Instagram and WhatsApp buys (see 2304270038) supports Google’s March 27 motion to dismiss the DOJ’s antitrust complaint for failure to state a claim, argued Google Thursday, apparently unsuccessfully, in a notice of supplemental authority.

The authority of the D.C. Circuit’s decision is “relevant to Google’s argument” that its DoubleClick and Admeld acquisitions shouldn’t be considered part of a course of conduct “alongside later allegedly anticompetitive acts,” said the notice. The authority is also relevant to Google’s argument “that its alleged restriction of Google Ads demand to Google’s products should be analyzed as a refusal to deal,” it said.