Google has taken the odd step of paying the full damages offered by the U.S. government in order to avoid a risky jury trial in a Department of Justice lawsuit targeting its alleged monopoly in the digital advertising market.
In a little-noticed court filing last week,Google said it cut a cashier’s check for a redacted amount — believed to be less than $3 million — that the company claimed covered “the full amount of monetary damages” sought by the Justice Department.
It was not immediately clear whether the Justice Department’s legal team accepted the check.
The Justice Department had filed a lawsuit seeking monetary damages on behalf of the U.S. military and other government agencies that it said were overpaying for online advertising due to Google’s harmful business practices.
Google’s critics took the filing as evidence that the company is afraid to send the case to a jury. That could upend their lucrative digital advertising businesses and force them to change their business models.
“Google A/B tests everything, so this move suggests they ran a jury simulation (possibly multiple times) and found a vulnerability.” luther law saidhead of public policy at Y Combinator.
The Justice Department lawsuit, filed in federal court in Virginia, also seeks a forced breakup of Google’s ad technology business, including a forced sale of its Ads Manager platform.
Google argued that the Justice Department sought monetary damages only to clear legal hurdles to secure a trial by jury rather than a courtroom trial decided by a judge.
Google’s lawyers argue that the check means the Justice Department is not entitled to a jury trial.
“Google continues to contest its liability and welcomes the court’s full resolution of all remaining claims in the complaint,” the company’s filing said.
Google also argued that the Justice Department’s request for a jury trial “breaks all historical precedent” in antitrust litigation.
The filing noted that the Justice Department itself has described the details of the case as “highly technical, often abstract, and outside the day-to-day knowledge of most prospective jurors.”
Google said in an earlier filing that the Justice Department proved during discovery that the maximum damages award was less than $1 million. Because the law allows courts to issue treble damages, or damages three times the amount originally stated, the check was likely for less than $3 million.
The Washington Post has reached out to the Justice Department and Google for comment.
Earlier this year, Google was handed one of the worst legal losses in its history after a unanimous jury found it had maintained an illegal monopoly through its Android app store.
The lawsuit was brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games and is currently in the relief phase.
The other major antitrust case, the Justice Department’s landmark case against Google’s online search empire, went to trial. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to rule later this year on whether Google maintains a monopoly on online search.
with post wire
