“The claim misrepresents our business, products and motives, and we are trying to dismiss it on the basis of its failure to offer plausible antitrust allegations,” said Adam Cohen, director of economic policy at Google. . The company says the plaintiffs have not provided evidence of wrongdoing for several of their allegations and that much of the lawsuit “is based on outdated information that has no correlation to our current products or business in this dynamic industry (and in any case never arrived at.” to a violation of antitrust laws).”
The AGs, led by Texas AG Ken Paxton, alleged that Google abused its power to bolster its position in the online ad market. They said the company that gave Facebook’s parent Meta a boost to ad header bidding (a type of technology that allows publishers to request bids from multiple ad exchanges simultaneously) in exchange for supporting the Open Bidding method of Google ad sales.
Google said the deal was above the table and not a secret as the Facebook Audience Network (FAN) was one of several partners for your Open Bidding program. Cohen said the deal “does not give FAN an advantage in the Open Bidding auction. FAN competes in the auction like other bidders: FAN must bid the highest to win a given impression, period. If another qualified network or exchange bids higher, they win the auction.”
The AGs also stated that Google leveraged at least three programs to handle ad auctions. The goal, according to the states, was to get publishers and advertisers to use the company’s own tools.
“State plaintiffs respond to Google’s success by seeking to compel Google to share with its competitors the fruits of its investments and innovation,” Google wrote in its filing. “They criticize Google for not designing its products to better meet the needs of its rivals and for making improvements to those products that leave its competitors far behind. They see the ‘solution’ to Google’s success as retaining Google rather than letting market forces push their competitors forward.”
Like notes, the other two charges in the lawsuit are based on state law and were suspended in September. While Google has not requested that they be waived, it has reserved the right to make such a request at a later date.
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