Google Asks Ohio Court to Dismiss Utility Case
"Google Search is not a common carrier of anything under Ohio law or otherwise,” Google told a state court Friday. The state asked the Common Pleas Court in Delaware County to find Google is a carrier and public utility (see…
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2106080056). The court should dismiss the case because Ohio failed to state a claim for relief, said Google, seeking a one-hour hearing. Asking to declare Google a common carrier or public utility for the reason that it's most Ohioans' preferred search service "has no more validity under the law than a request to declare Fox News, the New York Times, or Walmart a 'public utility' because most people in a particular town prefer to get their news or groceries from them instead of someone else,” the search engine said: Google responds to user queries with information and doesn’t transport queries, and it’s not a carrier of information on a results page "because it is not hired by others to display the links to their webpages in its search results.” Google search isn’t an essential service, and neither it nor its competitors ever faced regulations controlling "the relation between the business and the public as its customers, such as those that prevent unfair rates and denial of service," said Google: Under Ohio Supreme Court precedent, absence of such rules prevents courts from declaring the search engine a public utility. Free speech bans Ohio courts from regulating how Google search responds to user queries, it added. Google said it’s premature to consider Ohio’s motion to bifurcate two counts from its complaint (see 2106170055).