The Justice Department and a coalition of states in a court filing on Thursday responded to Google’s argument that only a judge — and not a jury — should hear the government’s lawsuit in Virginia federal court challenging the company’s power over online advertising.
The United States, Virginia and several other states last year accused Google of overcharging government agencies upwards of $100 million for online ad purchases. The lawsuit chiefly seeks to break up a part of Google’s lucrative ad tech business.
Google has denied the allegations and asserted that the government improperly "manufactured" its claims for monetary damages in order to obtain a jury trial. If the case were confined to an injunction bid as it should be, Google argued, a judge would decide the outcome directly.
To that end, Google this month delivered a cashier's check to the Justice Department that purported to cover the government’s damages.
The amount was not revealed publicly, but Google said the government could point to less than $1 million in damages despite earlier claiming significantly more.
The Justice Department, which has not accepted the payment, declined to comment.
It said in Thursday's filing to U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema that “Google has fought hard to keep its anticompetitive conduct shielded from public view.”
The filing faulted Google for trying to set conditions on the check, including the claim that the submission could not be considered an admission of liability.
The Justice Department also said the amount of the check failed to “compensate the United States for the full extent of its claimed damages.”
Still, the government left open the possibility that Google could pay damages, resolving that aspect of the case.
“Plaintiffs are confident they will receive a fair adjudication of these important claims, whether by jury or bench trial,” the filing said.
A hearing is set for June 21. The jury trial is scheduled to start in September.
The case is United States v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, No. 1:23-cv-00108.
For U.S.: Julia Tarver Wood and Aaron Teitelbaum of the Department of Justice
For Google: Eric Mahr and Andrew Ewalt of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer; Kannon Shanmugam and Karen Dunn of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Daniel Bitton and Bradley Justus of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider
Read more:
Google cuts mystery check to US in bid to sidestep jury trial
