Texas achieved a victory in its antitrust legal battle against Alphabet’s Google on Thursday when a U.S. judicial panel rejected the request to delay the decision to transfer the lawsuit back to a federal court in Texas.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation had previously agreed in June to Texas’ appeal, allowing the lawsuit accusing Google of exploiting its advertising technology dominance to be returned to the Lone Star state.
However, the panel did grant Google’s plea to temporarily halt the remand order for seven days, affording the company time to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In August 2021, Google had successfully moved the lawsuit, initially filed in Texas, to a federal court in New York, where other advertising technology cases were being heard. Nonetheless, Texas argued that a newly enacted law in 2022 empowered state attorneys general to select the venue for antitrust lawsuits, even if filed earlier. Google countered, asserting that the law should not apply retroactively.
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Paige Willey, spokesperson for the Texas attorney general’s office, expressed satisfaction with the panel’s ruling, stating that they would persist in their efforts against Google.
On the other hand, Google remained confident that it could demonstrate the inaccuracy of the Texas case, both in terms of facts and law.
The lawsuit filed by Texas alleges that Google unlawfully monopolized the advertising process for online ads, causing financial harm to website publishers.
Texas specifically sought to have the case heard in its Eastern District, known for its expeditious handling of legal matters.
As a tech conglomerate involved in search, advertising, smartphone operating systems, and the ownership of YouTube, Google is facing antitrust litigation globally, mostly related to allegations of dominance abuse. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
