Judge in Google Antitrust Case Eager to Set Initial Schedule
19 November 2020 - 7:15AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The judge overseeing the Justice Department's
antitrust lawsuit against Google said he hoped to set an initial
schedule for the case in December, while a government lawyer
indicated the department had more than 100 potential witnesses.
During a brief telephone hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge
Amit Mehta said he wanted to hammer out a schedule with both sides
before the holidays so Google and the government could begin the
process of legal discovery, gathering information and exchanging
materials about evidence that may be presented at trial.
The Justice Department sued Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., on
Oct. 20, alleging the company uses anticompetitive tactics to
preserve a monopoly for its flagship search engine and related
advertising business. The company denies the allegations, saying it
holds its market position because users like its products and
services.
Google lawyer John Schmidtlein said Wednesday the search giant
needed more information quickly about the materials the Justice
Department already gathered during its more than yearlong
investigation, especially what was produced to the government by
third-party companies. Until Google has that information, it will
have a hard time committing to how much time it will need to
prepare its defense, Mr. Schmidtlein said.
The parties are set to make some initial disclosures to one
another on Friday. Justice Department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer said
Google will see from those disclosures that the government has a
list of more than 100 potential witnesses in the case. Separately,
Mr. Dintzer told the judge that a bipartisan group of state
attorneys general will decide soon whether to file their own
antitrust lawsuit against Google. If they do, that group would seek
to consolidate their case with the Justice Department's, he
said.
Those states -- Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Tennessee, New York,
North Carolina and Utah -- said the same thing in a statement last
month.
A group of 11 state attorneys general, all Republicans, joined
the department in suing Google last month.
Procedurally, Judge Mehta said the next big task is the crafting
of a protective order that will limit Google's access to
competitively sensitive materials that other companies provided in
the government's probe. He scheduled a Dec. 2 hearing on that
issue, as well as a Dec. 18 hearing to further discuss
scheduling.
The judge also said the parties needed to think about
coronavirus-related issues like how to conduct depositions of
potential witnesses safely.
Google, in a brief written filing earlier this month, said it
wouldn't file a motion to dismiss the Justice Department's case at
the outset. The company is scheduled to file its formal written
answer to the lawsuit by Dec. 21.
Although the results of this month's presidential election will
bring changes at the top levels of the Justice Department,
President-elect Joe Biden has voiced support for robust antitrust
enforcement and is likely to favor an antitrust approach to Google
that is at least as aggressive as the Trump administration's.
Mr. Biden's transition team includes past antitrust enforcers
who were involved in high-profile cases, including former Justice
Department official Gene Kimmelman, a senior adviser at Public
Knowledge, a public-interest group that has advocated for strong
antitrust enforcement in the tech sector.
Google's relationship with the Obama administration was
positive, but the company's practices have been increasingly
criticized by lawmakers and other officials in both parties. Some
Democratic state attorneys general have been considering bringing
antitrust claims against Google that are broader than those in the
current Justice Department lawsuit.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 18, 2020 15:00 ET (20:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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