Alphabet Stock Rose as Google Planned to Petition Court To Drop the Antitrust Lawsuit

Alphabet Stock

Alphabet Stock (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is scheduled to appear before a U.S. District Judge on Thursday. The search giant will seek the judge to dismiss an antitrust complaint that dates back three years. Due to this, Alphabet stock surged in the market.

Google and the United States Department of Justice will have their cases heard by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. The Justice Department has asserted that Google has a monopoly in the search market due to “exclusionary distribution agreements,” which include deals with Apple for its Safari browser and the browser used by Mozilla Firefox.

According to a source in The Wall Street Journal, it is improbable that Judge Mehta would give a judgment on Thursday. According to the further information provided by the news site, Judge Mehta will most likely give a written summary of the case later this year.

The lawsuit was first submitted in October 2020 by the United States Department of Justice along with 11 individual states.

During that period, the Attorney General of the United States, William Barr, said the case “strikes at the heart of Google’s grip over the Internet for millions of American consumers, advertisers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs beholden to an unlawful monopolist.”

With headquarters in Mountain View, California, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have maintained that the case is “deeply flawed” and that the browser agreements they have with other organizations do not inhibit competition.

Another antitrust complaint brought against Google by the Justice Department and 38 state attorneys general was first filed in December 2020. Google may also ask Judge Mehta to dismiss this case.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) proceeded to bring a second antitrust complaint against Google in January, this time over the company’s advertising technology business.

On Thursday morning, before the market opened, Alphabet stock was slightly higher.

This week, Google removed the requirement that employees must have a COVID-19 immunization to access corporate premises.

Featured Image: Megapixl

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