Pretrial Update, May 17: Google Tries to Buy Its Way Out of a Jury

🚨Yesterday Google filed a motion in the DOJ v. Google adtech trial to get out of having to explain their alleged anticompetitive conduct to a jury.

To do so, they tendered a check for an undisclosed amount to the DoJ. “To prevent the tail from wagging the dog, Google has tendered the United States a cashier’s check for the full monetary damages it seeks,” Google wrote in its motion.

Google also made the argument that antitrust trials are already too complicated for average Americans and, certainly, explaining the “highly technical auction designs” (aka their digital advertising products worth approximately $250B to them btw) is too complex for lay people to understand.

This argument isn’t surprising, but it is arrogant and insulting. Once again we are seeing Google act as if they are above the law, and above the consumers it purports to serve. Of course they don’t want to have to explain their “designs” to a jury - because doing so would open a window into their black box of power that has gone unchecked.

It’s also not a new argument, defendants have frequently argued that antitrust trials are too difficult for juries. But here’s the thing - having antitrust disputes resolved by ordinary citizens promotes transparency, democratic values, and lends legitimacy to the judiciary's function of resolving legal disputes. In our justice system, attorneys (and their clients) have the responsibility of making their cases understandable to lay jurors - antitrust trials should be no exception.

‍