Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S., is hardly rolling over for Google’s attempt to have its recent anti-trust lawsuit thrown out of
court.
Instead, Gannett on Friday filed a 26-page answer to Google’s motion to dismiss the case, stating among other things, that the court has already
sustained allegations that “Google committed at least ten anticompetitive acts over a decade.”
Gannett’s lawsuit seeks to fill in identified shortcomings in its earlier
complaint alleging anti-competitive conduct, it says.
In its answer to Google, Gannett challenges Google’s statute of limitations defense.
“As a member of the
putative publisher class since 2021, Gannett has not 'slept on its claims' as Google claims. Gannett’s complaint is timely and alleges the same vast, unlawful, anticompetitive monopolies that
the Court already held states multiple Sherman Act claims".
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Filed in September, Google’s motion to dismiss “recycles incorrect arguments it has raised
before,” Gannett continues.
In addition, Gannett charges that Google’s line-item capping is an ‘ongoing policy’ that manipulates millions of auctions for
Gannett’s inventory.”
It continues that each “auction with a header-bidding exchange now includes an artificial discount imposed by Google – either in the form of a
lower header bidding price or a lower price from Google to beat it.”
The complaint argues that the fact Google began imposing line-item caps in 2017 “does not insulate the
policy from scrutiny today.”
The answer also states that Enhanced Dynamic Allocation was ruled “anticompetitive conduct in the ad exchange market by the court.
Gannett also said it was coerced into utilizing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). “Google contends that Gannett “does not allege coercion,” the answer claims. “The complaint
pleads otherwise: “Because Gannett cannot forgo . . . Google-referred readers, [it] must accede to whatever terms Google requires.”
In its filing, Gannett says it was forced
to “adopt AMP, reject client-side header bidding, and sell effectively all AMP ad space through AdX at reduced prices.”
Google and Alphabet contested Gannett’s charges
in the motion to dismiss filed on Sept. 8 with the U.S. District court for the Southern District of New York.
Given the complexity of the arguments and the well-financed legal teams,
don’t expect resolution to happen any time soon.