Google has been denied by a U.S. judge in an advertising antitrust case

Google has appealed a U.S. federal judge's decision to deny its motion to dismiss an antitrust case filed by the Department of Justice, which focuses on advertising technology, saying the government's case is strong enough to go forward.

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As part of the lawsuit filed by the government in January, the government argues that Google should be made to sell its ad manager suite in order for the company to continue operating. The company has denied any wrongdoing on its part.

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Judge Leonie Brinkema said in a federal court in Virginia that she would deny the defendant's motion to dismiss on the basis of insufficient evidence. GOOGL is part of the Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL.O) group of companies.

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Having filed the motion, Google is seeking to end an array of costly and time-consuming antitrust lawsuits that have been burdening the company. There was also a request by the company for a federal court in Washington to dismiss the government's claims related to a suit it filed in 2020.

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Eric Mahr, representing Google, argued that the Justice Department failed to allege a high enough market share of 70%, which would have enabled him to say that Google had a strong hold on the market to make such a claim.

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In addition to market share, Brinkema suggested that other factors should also be considered, such as whether or not a company had engaged in "rapacious conduct."

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Similarly, Brinkema disagreed with Mahr's assertion that the government had reviewed Google's deal to buy DoubleClick and Admeld ten years ago, as part of its strategy to increase its clout in ad tech, noting that the government said it made a mistake in its assessment.

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It was also argued by Mahr that the Justice Department failed to prove that the actions of Google resulted in any damages being suffered by advertisers as a result of these actions. Likewise, he stated that Facebook and others were improperly excluded from the government's definition of the market, with these companies called "obvious substitutes" by the government.