Judge in Google Lawsuit Presided Over Major Antitrust Case
October 21 2020 - 11:43AM
Dow Jones News
By Brent Kendall
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's lawsuit against Google
has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama
appointee who has presided over a major antitrust case.
Judge Mehta joined the bench in early 2015 and a short time
later received his welcome gift: a case in which the Federal Trade
Commission was seeking to block the proposed merger of the nation's
two largest food distributors, Sysco Corp. and US Foods.
That summer, the judge issued an injunction blocking the deal,
saying in a 128-page ruling that the tie-up was the type of large
combination that spurred Congress, decades earlier, to give the
government the power to halt mergers. Sysco abandoned the
transaction days later.
Because antitrust cases rarely go to court, many judges have
little experience with them, which can present challenges for
litigants.
Though Judge Mehta ruled for the FTC, he grilled the government
throughout the proceedings, questioning economic calculations
presented by the commission.
More recently, Judge Mehta issued a high-profile ruling last
year that said President Trump couldn't block a subpoena from a
House committee seeking financial records from his longtime
accounting firm.
That case remains in litigation after making a trip to the
Supreme Court.
The Justice Department's lawsuit against Google, filed Tuesday,
marks the government's most aggressive antitrust case in the tech
sector in more than two decades.
The department alleged that the Alphabet Inc. unit uses
anticompetitive tactics to preserve a monopoly for its flagship
search engine and related advertising business. Google called the
lawsuit deeply flawed, saying it maintains its top market position
because consumers want to use its services, many of which are
free.
Write to Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 21, 2020 11:28 ET (15:28 GMT)
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