Google Asks Court to Reject Texas Antitrust Case

Google on Friday asked a federal court to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed by the State of Texas, the first time in the United States that the government tried to dismiss one of the competition lawsuits filed against it.

Google said in a filing that it did not show that the state had engaged in anti-competitive behavior and that a settlement between Facebook and Google, which was a core part of the lawsuit, did not prove that it violated the law.

“We are confident that this lawsuit is factually and legally wrong and should be dismissed,” said Adam Cohen, the company’s director of economic policy.

The Texas lawsuit alleges that the company has obtained and abused a monopoly over systems such as the maze that allow publishers to auction ad spaces to marketers. The states allege that Google misled publishers and advertisers about the nature of ad auctions and allowed Google to pocket more of the money flowing from their ad systems. And they say it struck a deal with Facebook to maintain its dominance when publishers tried to develop an alternative system.

“Despite a long collection of complaints, each makes a request for Google to share its data or design its products to help its competitors,” Google said in its filing.

A spokesperson for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.

Google is facing pressure from governments around the world. In addition to lawsuits from Texas and more than a dozen states, the federal government and a different group of states have sued the company, alleging it abused the monopoly on online search. A Senate committee on Thursday passed an antitrust law aimed at cracking down on some of its apps, along with Amazon and Apple, and European lawmakers in Brussels are considering new digital antitrust rules of their own.

Google is also not the first tech giant to try to dismiss a recent government antitrust lawsuit. Last year, Facebook asked a federal court to dismiss lawsuits brought against it by the Federal Trade Commission and a number of states. The judge in the case initially agreed. But the FTC refilled his case and the judge. said this month He said he can move forward. This states they appealed.