Google denied in the new court filing that Meta colluded to manipulate the advertising market

Google's latest motion calls for the dismissal of an antitrust complaint filed last week alleging that Google and Facebook colluded to manipulate the programmatic advertising market. "Complaints filed by state plaintiffs were provoked by a small number of Google counterparts who failed to invest properly, successfully compete, or continue to innovate in a way that may serve the narrow interests of those adversaries," Google said in the motion. But it also has the potential to stifle the dynamism that drives Google and other companies to deliver products that businesses and consumers rely on every day."

The antitrust lawsuit, which was originally filed last November, was led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and gradually disclosed more allegations through a series of revised complaints. Complaints filed last week provided particularly specific details about Google's alleged collusion with Facebook, including a project nicknamed "Jedi Blue" that the lawsuit says is designed to limit headline bidding.

The new complaints are based on internal emails showing that the "Jedi Blue" deal was reviewed with input from Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Meta/Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Financial Officer Sheryl Sandberg. But Google denied that the deal involved any anti-competitive practices and said the approval of the deal was not directly approved by Pichai.

Adam Cohen, Google's director of economic policy, wrote in a newly responded blog post that the allegations were "more heat than light" and that Google argued they did not meet the legal criteria for bringing the case to trial. "The complaint distorts our business, products and motives, and we are proceeding to dismiss it because it fails to provide a reasonable antitrust claim," he wrote in his blog post.