Nine other US states join the digital advertising lawsuit against Google
Nine states, including Michigan and Nebraska, have joined the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google, alleging that the search and advertising company violated antitrust laws in handling its digital advertising business, the department announced Monday.
The states that joined the lawsuit were Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Washington and West Virginia, the department said.
The government, which filed the ad-tech lawsuit in January with eight states, had argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad-management software for illegally abusing its dominant position in online advertising. Google has denied wrongdoing and asked Judge Leonie Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Justice Department’s ad tech case followed a separate lawsuit filed in 2020, at the end of the Trump administration, that accused Google of violating antitrust laws to maintain its dominance in search. The case will go to trial in September.
President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to tighten competition restrictions. Along with Google’s lawsuit, it is also challenging several proposed mergers.
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