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Tech ·Google


GOOGLE WANTS A JUDGE TO DECIDE WHETHER IT VIOLATED U.S. ANTITRUST LAWS BECAUSE
JURORS WOULDN’T GET IT

BYMatthew Barakat and The Associated Press
May 17, 2024 at 10:34 AM GMT+2
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Google wants judge, not jury, decide upcoming antitrust case in Virginia.
David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Google on Thursday asked that a judge, rather than a jury, decide whether it
violated U.S. antitrust laws by building a monopoly on the technology that
powers online advertising.



To bolster its case, the tech giant wrote a multimillion-dollar check to the
U.S. government that it says renders moot the government’s best argument for
demanding a jury trial.



The antitrust case set to go before a jury in Alexandria, Virginia, in September
is one of two major lawsuits the Justice Department has brought against Google.
While the Virginia case focuses on advertising technology, an ongoing case in
the District of Columbia focuses on Google’s dominance as a search engine.

Both sides in the D.C. case have presented evidence and made closing arguments.
A judge there will decide whether Google violated the law.

Google wants a judge to decide the merits of the case in Virginia, as well. The
company argues in court papers filed Thursday that it’s unprecedented for a jury
to decide a federal antitrust case brought by the government. It says that this
case in particular involves “a complicated, intricate technology ecosystem,
which DOJ has acknowledged to this Court is ‘highly technical, often abstract,
and outside the everyday knowledge of most prospective jurors.’”



A Department of Justice spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email
seeking comment Thursday evening.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, makes two primary arguments for
striking the government’s demand for a jury trial. For starters, Google argues
that the constitutional right to a jury trial does not apply to a civil suit
brought by the government.



The right to a jury trial, based in the Bill of Rights, “protects citizens
against the federal government, not the other way around,” Google’s lawyers
write in their court filing.

The company acknowledges in the court papers, though, that the Justice
Department has a stronger argument for demanding a jury in a case where it seeks
monetary damages, as opposed to merely seeking equitable relief, like forcing
Google to sell off parts of its advertising technology.

In the Virginia case, the Department of Justice seeks monetary damages on behalf
of federal agencies, including the Army, that it says were harmed by Google’s
monopolistic practices and overpaid for online ads that they purchased.

In its court filing, Google contends that the damage claim was tacked on to the
lawsuit at the last minute for the sole purpose of allowing them to seek a jury.

The Department of Justice “manufactured a damages claim at the last minute in an
attempt to secure a jury trial in a case even they describe as ‘highly
technical’ and ‘outside the everyday knowledge of most prospective jurors,” the
company said in a written statement Thursday.



Google’s filing Thursday said the company has cut a check to the government that
is triple the amount of the losses the government can claim. The exact amount of
the check is redacted, but in other court papers, Google said the maximum amount
of damages the government was able to demonstrate during the discovery process
was less than $1 million.

Because the law allows antitrust damages to be trebled, the check amount would
be less than $3 million.

Google says it still disputes that the damages are legitimate, but says that
paying the government’s claimed damages eliminates the need for a jury to decide
the damages question.

While Google says it’s unprecedented for a jury to decide a government antitrust
suit, Google has defended itself in front of a jury on antitrust cases brought
by private companies.

Last year, a jury in San Francisco ruled in favor of Epic Games, the maker of
the popular Fortnite game, in a case the company brought against Google over the
Google Play store, which allows users of Android phones to download apps.

In that case, Google tried unsuccessfully at the last minute to switch the trial
from a jury trial to a bench trial.

Subscribe to Data Sheet, our daily newsletter about the business of tech. Sign
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