Google Search Antitrust Suit Narrowed by Federal Judge Ahead of September Trial

A federal judge narrowed a major antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google ahead of a trial that is slated to begin next month, rejecting an argument made by a bipartisan group of 38 state attorneys general who sued the tech company in 2020 over its search dominance.

In a decision unsealed on Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected a legal theory pushed by the state attorneys general in their December 2020 lawsuit. But he allowed the Justice Department and the state attorneys general to make other arguments during the nonjury trial he will oversee starting in September.

The decision eliminates a sizable claim against Google while preserving the core of the government’s case against the search giant, clearing the way for the antitrust trial.

Google handles about 90% of search-engine queries worldwide. The Justice Department sued Google in October 2020, alleging that it maintains a monopoly “through exclusionary distribution agreements that steer billions of search queries to Google each day,” including contracts that make Google the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser and Mozilla’s Firefox browser.

“People have more ways than ever to access information, and they choose to use Google because it’s helpful,” Google chief legal officer Kent Walker said in a statement. “We look forward to showing at trial that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and pro-competitive.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who led the group of state attorneys general in the suit, said he was pleased it would proceed to trial.

“We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Google’s pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition,” Weiser said in a statement. A Justice Department spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Next month’s trial will be one of the most significant U.S. antitrust proceedings since the government sued Microsoft in the 1990s, a case that posed challenges to the tech company’s operations.

The state attorneys general had argued that Google undermined competitors such as restaurant and travel booking sites by using its dominance in search to restrict their advertisements, for example. The complaint echoed concerns that companies including Expedia and Yelp have raised about Google’s business practices.

In his decision, Mehta said the state attorneys general failed to find evidence supporting their allegations of anticompetitive conduct.

Mehta’s decision isn’t surprising after previous investigations into similar claims against Google failed to result in charges, said Laura Phillips-Sawyer, an associate professor at the University of Georgia School of Law.

The Justice Department in January brought a separate case alleging Google abuses its role as one of the largest brokers, suppliers and online auctioneers of ads placed on websites and mobile applications. That case is in Virginia, not in Mehta’s Washington, D.C. courtroom.

Google’s search engine supports a more than $160 billion-in-sales advertising business that makes up the majority of parent company Alphabet’s annual revenues.

The Justice Department brought the search case during the final weeks of the Trump administration. Eleven Republican-led states joined the department as plaintiffs.

In December 2020, two months after the Justice Department sued, a group of 38 states filed a follow-on lawsuit. That case made overlapping arguments, as well as broader claims relating to how Google displays search results.

Mehta tossed out a part of the case brought by the state attorneys general—a legal theory that the Justice Department didn’t adopt.

He granted summary judgment to Google on that part of the case, saying the state attorneys general hadn’t shown that Google’s approach to displaying results hurt competitors.

Mehta also dismissed claims related to Google’s agreements with mobile-device manufacturers that use the company’s Android software, along with contracts related to its Assistant program and internet-connected products. The plaintiffs didn’t offer any opposition for those claims, he said in the decision.

Mehta allowed the state attorneys general to continue arguing another claim, that Google’s Search Ads 360 tool for large brands discriminated against ad features on Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Google has said there is no evidence it used the product to harm competitors.

Write to Miles Kruppa at [email protected] and Jan Wolfe at [email protected]