• by Ray Schultz , October 30, 2023

There has been another filing in the case of Gannett vs. Google. It may yet be some time before the court rules on Google’s motion to dismiss the Gannett anti-trust complaint filed in June, let alone to rule on the case in general, if it comes to that. 

Google came roaring back on Friday, arguing that Gannett has “not pointed to anything in its Complaint to justify special treatment for claims that this Court has already dismissed,” referring to a prior case.

The filing contends that the court should toss Gannett’s claims regarding Google's tools and products such as exchange bidding, encrypted user IDs, accelerrated mobile pages (AMP), enhanced dynamic allocation (EDA), minimum bid to win, and line-item capping.

Gannett has failed to show that it was coerced into exchange bidding, or that exchange bidding was anti-competitive, Google argues. 

Google also states that apart from “one conclusory allegation that ‘for many years,’ ‘[e]xchanges participating in header bidding’ were not permitted to compete against direct deals, Gannett fails to plead that EDA actually harmed competition in any market." 

In addition, Gannett failed to allege that encrypted user IDs are anti-competitive. And, it continues that Gannett failed to show that AMP coerces publishers to abandon client side header bidding.  

The filing concludes, “Dismissal with prejudice is warranted because Gannett is not akin to another plaintiff filing its first complaint; it has had the benefit of an extensive, multi-year docket containing the Court’s order and Google’s arguments against subsequent complaints.”  

For its part, Gannett states that the court has already sustained allegations that “Google committed at least ten anticompetitive acts over a decade.”