Google and Texas Antitrust Court Showdown Scheduled for March 2025

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Judge Sean Jordan of the US District Court has marked March 2025 on his calendar. This is when a lawsuit brought by Texas and other states against Google will commence. The accusation? Google’s alleged abuse of its dominant market position in advertising technology systems (as reported by Reuters).

Jury selection for this federal trial, estimated to span four weeks, is slated for March 31, 2025. The location? Plano, Texas. But here’s the thing. This isn’t the date that Texas attorneys had in mind.

They had pleaded with the judge to set the trial for August 2024. They argued that any delay would play right into Google’s hands. In their words, it would allow Google to “abuse its market power for longer, at the expense of American consumers.” Google’s lawyers, on the other hand, were pushing for a trial date post-April 2025.

When word of the trial plans got out, Google was quick to deny any wrongdoing. They labeled Texas’ case as “deeply flawed”. The Texas coalition, which filed the lawsuit back in 2020, begs to differ. They claim Google violated antitrust laws to stifle competition in digital advertising and give its business a leg up.

But that’s not all. Advertisers, publishers, and small businesses are singing the same tune. They’re pressing similar charges in a separate coordinated legal proceeding in Manhattan. And let’s not forget the U.S. Justice Department. They sued Google in Alexandria, Virginia, last year.

Google’s legal woes don’t end there. They’re already in the hot seat in a Washington federal court. A US judge heard antitrust claims last year from the Justice Department. The allegations? Google has paid billions to tech companies to unlawfully maintain its dominance in online search. The closing arguments for this non-jury trial are scheduled for May.

And then there’s California. Google is set to go head-to-head with “Fortnite” creator Epic Games. The bone of contention? Epic Games’ bid for a court order that could force Google to tweak its app store Play. A jury in December ruled that Google had unlawfully harmed competition.