Judge in Google Antitrust Case Eager to Set Initial Schedule

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 [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 18, 2020 15:00 ET (20:00 GMT)

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