• by Ray Schultz , August 6, 2023

Google has been given a green light to seek dismissal of certain claims in the antitrust suit filed against it  by Gannett in June. 

U.S. District Judge P. Keven Castel on Thursday ordered that the “Google defendants may proceed as requested,” in a July 18 letter asking permission to file a motion to dismiss the claims. 

In that letter, Google’s attorneys argued that “Gannett is represented by the same counsel as the Daily Mail, and Gannett’s complaint closely the Daily Mail’s complaint, including copy 198 of its 275 paragraphs almost verbatim.”

The letter continues that, as a result, “the Gannett complaint includes several allegations that the Court previously did not state a claim when brought by the States.”

In addition, Google requested permission to move to “dismiss Gannett’s claims regarding bypassing directly sold deals via Enhanced Dynamic Allocation and Line Item Caps has barred by the four-year statute of limitations.”

Castel ruled that Google can move against those claims on “the additional grounds of the statute of limitations.”

This does not mean that Google has yet succeeded in having those claims thrown out. 

The judge ordered that the motions “shall be filed by September 8, 2023, any response filed by October 6, 2023 and any reply by October 20, 2023.” 

Also, the Google defendants may “also move to dismiss the complaint of Suny Singh,” Castel continued.

Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., charged in its complaint that Google and Alphabet enjoy a digital advertising monopoly. 

“Google controls how publishers sell their ad slots, and it forces publishers to sell growing shares of that ad space to Google at depressed prices,” charges the complaint  on file with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.  

The complaint adds, “The result is dramatically less revenue for publishers and Google’s ad-tech rivals, while Google enjoys exorbitant monopoly profits.”

The Daily Mail sued Google in 2021 over the alleged ad monopoly. 

In 2020, Texas and nine other states sued Google, alleging that it violated antitrust law.