U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, made the ruling on Friday and scheduled the non-jury trial for September 9 [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Alphabet’s Google will not face a jury trial over its alleged digital promoting dominance after the corporate paid $2.3 million to cowl the U.S. authorities’s declare of financial damages, a federal decide dominated on Friday.
Because non-monetary calls for are heard by judges straight in antitrust instances, Google’s cost implies that it avoids a jury trial. The firm had mentioned it will have been the first-ever jury trial in a civil antitrust case lodged by the U.S. Justice Department.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states sued the tech large final 12 months, claiming it was unlawfully monopolising digital promoting and overcharging customers. The lawsuit seeks primarily to interrupt up Google’s digital promoting enterprise to permit for extra competitors.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, made the ruling on Friday and scheduled the non-jury trial for September 9, when she will hear arguments to determine the case straight.
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Google has denied wrongdoing and mentioned it was not admitting legal responsibility by submitting a damages cost. “DOJ’s contrived damages claim has disintegrated,” the corporate mentioned in assertion on Friday, calling the case a “meritless attempt to pick winners and losers in a highly competitive industry.”
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to remark.
Google mentioned final month the federal government, which had initially claimed greater than $100 million in damages, requested lower than $1 million in damages. Google’s $2.3 million cost accounts for curiosity and for the potential for damages to be tripled below U.S. antitrust legislation.
Google had accused the federal authorities of producing its financial damages declare in order to make sure a jury trial.
The Justice Department responded that it was open to resolving the cash damages a part of its case, however provided that Google reduce a bigger test.
“Google has fought hard to keep its anticompetitive conduct shielded from public view,” the federal government informed Brinkema final month.