Name partner Dena Sharp today was appointed interim co-lead counsel in the Google Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, a multidistrict litigation pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In making the appointment after a contested leadership process, U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel found that Ms. Sharp and co-counsel Tina Wolfson “will best ensure the smooth, efficient and just prosecution of claims by a class of advertisers.” The court further noted that Ms. Sharp and Ms. Wolfson have successfully “moved the case forward and coordinated with counsel for the States and the publisher plaintiffs.”
The court will soon rule on Google’s motion to dismiss the States’ Third Amended Complaint, which alleges anticompetitive restraints that include a “network-bidding agreement” with Facebook that documents show was intended to “kill” competition.
Girard Sharp was the first law firm to file a class action against Google for monopolizing digital display advertising services. Plaintiffs allege that Google rigs instantaneous ad auctions in its own favor and leverages its monopoly in search advertising to maintain a dominant position across the entire market for digital advertising services, resulting in overpayments by advertisers.
Plaintiffs further allege Google deployed such anticompetitive tactics as mergers to monopolize, withholding of data, and denial of interoperability to drive out ad-tech competitors. Google’s monopoly conduct has made it virtually impossible for advertisers seeking to place display ads on other websites to do so except through Google.
Girard Sharp attorneys working on the Google antitrust litigation include Jordan Elias and Scott Grzenczyk.
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