Google Seeks OK to File Motion to Dismiss Certain Claims in Gannett Digital Ad Case
Google requested permission Tuesday to file a motion to dismiss certain claims in Gannett v. Google, an antitrust lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan (see 2306220028). The lawsuit alleges Google manipulates “real-time…
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bidding,” monopolizes publisher ad serving, “abuses” the Google DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) ad platform to monopolize the market for ad exchanges, manipulates DFP to “artificially deflate bids from rival exchanges” and eliminates price floors while imposing unified pricing rules. In the Tuesday letter (docket 1:23-cv-05177) to U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Castle for Southern New York, Google counsel Justina Sessions of Freshfields Bruckhaus noted Gannett is represented in the case by the same counsel as the Daily Mail and its complaint “closely tracks” with that complaint, “including copying 198 of its 275 paragraphs almost verbatim.” As a result, the Gannett complaint includes several allegations the court previously ruled didn't state a claim, plus claims Google moved to dismiss from amended private plaintiff complaints in this MDL, Sessions said. Google doesn’t believe any distinctions warrant a different ruling between the federal antitrust claims in Gannett’s complaint, those brought by 15 states in the third amended complaint in Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, and other antitrust suits involving its digital ad business. Google asked to move to dismiss Gannett’s claims on bypassing directly sold deals via Enhanced Dynamic Allocation and line item caps as barred by the four-year statute of limitations. The court previously ruled the states adequately pleaded claims for injunctive relief on Enhanced Dynamic Allocation and line-item caps and declined to adjudicate the issue of laches on the pleadings, Sessions said. Gannett alleges it knew of, and complained to Google about, Enhanced Dynamic Allocation in 2014, nine years before filing its complaint in 2023. Gannett allegedly “discovered” that Enhanced Dynamic Allocation affected Gannett’s “sponsorship deals” five years ago, in 2018, she said. Gannett alleges Google began limiting the number of line items publishers could create in the ad server in 2017. “These claims are barred by the statute of limitations because Gannett knew of -- and indeed complained about -- the challenged practices more than four years before it filed its complaint,” she said.