Google is preventing a brand new DOJ bid to interrupt up one other a part of its empire

The US authorities obtained a second likelihood to attempt to dismantle Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) stronghold over the web in a listening to on Friday meant to kind out how finest to revive competitors in two internet marketing markets.

Decide Leonie Brinkema, a US federal district choose in Alexandria, Va., set a “cures” trial date of Sept. 22 for the tech big to face off in opposition to the Justice Division’s effort to interrupt up Google’s advert tech monopoly.

Google now has to defend that a part of its empire in opposition to a breakup whereas additionally doing the identical in a separate antitrust trial the place the DOJ is in search of the divestment of the tech big’s Chrome search browser.

Final August, in that case, US District Decide Amit Mehta discovered Google chargeable for illegally monopolizing the overall search engine market and the marketplace for common search engine textual content.

He’s now contemplating divestments of Google’s extremely worthwhile Chrome browser and its Android working system, together with limitations on its implementation of synthetic intelligence instruments.

Within the advert tech monopoly case, Decide Brinkema in April sided with the DOJ and 17 state attorneys common by ruling that the tech big used unlawful ways to dam competitors in markets the place on-line ads are purchased and offered.

That ruling gave the choose discretion to allow or deny the federal government’s request to think about divestments often called “structural cures.”

Particularly, the DOJ has argued that Google’s Advert Supervisor suite, which incorporates DoubleClick for Publishers, a publisher-side advert server, and Google Advert Change, its alternate platform the place patrons and sellers dealer offers for on-line advertisements, needs to be spun off.

Google tried to get the choose to remove the choice of divestitures. It was “going for a kill shot,” mentioned Daniel McCuaig, a former trial legal professional with the Justice Division’s antitrust division, who’s now a associate with Cohen Milstein.

However Google did not get its method, which heightens its enterprise dangers because it fights to carry on to a number of subsidiaries in two main antitrust defeats suffered over the previous yr. Nevertheless, Decide Brinkema did categorical concern about overreaching cures throughout the listening to, noting that the fallacious cures could cause extra hurt. Publishers, for instance, may even see no profit if Google’s advert server had been demolished.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vp for regulatory affairs, mentioned, “The DOJ’s extra proposals to power a divestiture of our advert tech instruments go effectively past the Court docket’s findings, haven’t any foundation in legislation, and would hurt publishers and advertisers.”