Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Google in Antitrust Lawsuit
Google just landed a nice win in the antitrust case regarding an illegal monopoly claim in digital advertising.
Google’s request to an agency for records in South Carolina was being stonewalled.
However, the Supreme Court ruled that the agency must comply with the records request.
Monopoly
A total of 17 states have joined the suit against Google for what they are saying is an illegal monopoly.
Google, in turn, had subpoenaed South Carolina’s parks, recreation, and tourism agency for records to show how it came about its rates as well as using its ad services.
South Carolina is among the states suing Google, but it claimed that since Google was not an “arm of the state,” it was not required to comply with the subpoena from Google.
A lower court had already sided with Google, and South Carolina lost its appeal on the 4th Circuit.
Google’s attorneys argued, "The rule SCPRT urges this court to adopt would be a recipe for manipulation and abuse.
"It would allow a state to waive its own immunity by bringing suit against a defendant, while nevertheless insulating state agencies from any obligation to comply with the discovery the defendant needs to mount a defense."
In that appeal, the court agreed, stating, "When the state waived its immunity by voluntarily joining the suit against Google, it 'nullified' any immunity defense that any of its arms, including SCPRT, could have otherwise asserted.”
Now, South Carolina has lost its appeal to the Supreme Court, with the court declining to hear the case, which means the appellate court ruling will stand.
Google, of course, has denied that it has done anything wrong.
Hurting the case for the South Carolina agency is the fact that the other states involved in the suit have already complied with the records request made by Google.
