Texas and Google set for court showdown in March 2025 antitrust battle

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan has scheduled March 2025 as the start of a lawsuit filed by Texas and other states accusing Google of abusing its dominant position in the ad tech systems market (via Reuters).

Jury selection for the estimated four-week federal trial would begin March 31, 2025, in Plano, Texas.

This is not the date favored by Texas lawyers who asked the judge to set a trial for August 2024, arguing that any delay would favor Google “allowing it to abuse its market power for longer, at least to the detriment of American consumers.

In contrast, Google's lawyers have said they want a trial after April 2025. When plans for the trial surfaced, Google denied any wrongdoing and called the Texas case “deeply flawed.”

The Texas coalition, which filed suit in 2020, accused Google of violating antitrust laws to curb competition in digital advertising and boost its business. Advertisers, publishers and small businesses filed similar complaints in a separate coordinated legal proceeding in Manhattan, and the U.S. Justice Department last year took Google to court in Alexandria, Virginia.

In addition to these advertising-related cases, Google is already on trial in federal court in Washington, where a U.S. judge last year heard antitrust complaints from the Justice Department over allegations that Google paid billions of dollars to technology companies to illegally maintain its dominance. online search. Closing arguments in the nonjury trial are scheduled for May.

In California, Google will soon face off against “Fortnite” maker Epic Games over its attempt to obtain a court order that could force Google to make changes to its Play app store. In December, a jury ruled that Google had illegally harmed competition.