Google Wants States’ Antitrust Suit Moved To California

Alphabet’s Google has asked a US judge in Texas to transfer an antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 states in December to a court in California, a state that has more relevant witnesses and documents needed by the company, reported Reuters.

In December, Texas and nine other states sued Google in a US court in Sherman, Texas, accusing the search engine company of working with Facebook in a way that violated antitrust law to boost its already-dominant online advertising business.

Google stated in a court filing that the first case alleging it monopolized online display advertising was filed in May by an advertiser, and that since then five other cases have been filed.

All were filed in the Northern District of California, “the venue where Google is headquartered and where more relevant witnesses and documents are located than in any other district in the country,” Google stated in its request to move the case, which was filed late on Tuesday, January 19.

Google added that the states’ lawsuit “does not identify a single company or person who might be a witness at trial and lives or works within 100 miles” of the Texas courthouse where the case was filed.

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