Plano, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan deniedMountain View, California-based Google's bid to dismiss the case, rejecting for now its arguments that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue.
Texas and 15 other mainly Republican-led states and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging Google violated antitrust laws and protections against unfair and deceptive trade practices.
The lawsuit said Google maintains an unlawful stranglehold over digital advertising as the key "middleman" for the electronic exchanges in which online display ads are bought and sold, allowing it to command artificially higher prices.
Google, which has denied wrongdoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has other challenges to the lawsuit pending.
A lawyer for Texas said the state welcomed the judge's "careful consideration of the law and facts."
The other states involved in the lawsuit are Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah.
A trial in the case is currently scheduled to begin in March. Jordan and the lawyers in the case at a hearing on Wednesday discussed delaying the trial until summer because a ruling in a related lawsuit in Alexandria, Virginia against Google could impact the litigation in Texas.
Separately, a judge in Washington, D.C., ruled on Aug. 6 that Google unlawfully paid billions of dollars to device makers and other companies to become the world's default search engine. Google has denied the claims.
The U.S. Justice Department has asked the judge in that case to force Google to sell its Chrome browser, a remedy that Google is opposing. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta will hold a trial in April.
