On Friday, local time, District Judge Amit Mehta (Amit Mehta) issued a brief order requiring Google to respond to the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit before mid-November . Google needs to explain how to respond to the lawsuit, and both parties will soon begin to disclose details about the case.
On October 20th, U.S. local time, the U.S. Department of Justice formally announced a lawsuit against Google, accusing the $1 trillion technology company of illegally using its market power to hinder competitors. This is the power of U.S. regulators against large technology companies for decades. And the largest law enforcement action with influence.
The U.S. Department of Justice accused Google of taking illegal actions to maintain its dominant position in search and search advertising. Google denies any wrongdoing.
At a state meeting on Friday, Google’s representative John Schmidtlein agreed to notify the District of Columbia District Court before November 13 whether the search and advertising giant plans to respond to this on a summary judgment basis case.
After many disputes between the Justice Department and Google’s lawyers, Judge Mehta stated that both parties should submit a status report on the protection order before November 6, which will protect the ranking of Google clients who provide evidence to the Justice Department. Tripartite. At the same time, both parties should initially disclose potential witnesses and evidence that may be used in the trial before November 20.
The next status meeting is scheduled for November 18. Judge Mehta also disclosed personal connections with Google, including one of his cousins who worked for Google and a friend who had served as an executive at Google. Mehta said he didn’t know what role his cousin played at Google. Google refused to confirm the identity of Judge Mehta’s relatives, and refused to specify the nature of his work.
When confirming the judge, the judge’s family relationship is sometimes questioned by all parties in the litigation. It is unclear whether Google or the Department of Justice will try to get Judge Mehta to evade. U.S. law requires that judges need to withdraw “in any lawsuit in which fairness may be reasonably questioned.”
In the antitrust lawsuit, Google may be subject to three specific allegations by the Ministry of Justice, namely:
1) Google has monopoly power in three markets: general search service, search text advertising and search advertising. In this regard, Google may counterattack by promoting the expansion of the scope of these three markets, and said it faces a lot of competition.
2) Google has illegally maintained its control of the market by using a series of exclusive agreements to block rival search engines. Google may argue that consumers benefit from it.
3) Google harmed the interests of consumers and advertisers, and harmed competition and innovation. Google may argue that its products are good enough, and consumers can also choose to switch to other search engines.
The US Department of Justice has not specified what remedies it will seek to correct Google’s actions if it wins the case. However, the agency is expected to seek a court order to prevent Google from continuing to reach exclusive agreements with equipment manufacturers. In addition, the Justice Department may seek structural solutions, which may be equivalent to splitting Google or forced divestment of assets.
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