Judge Leonie Brinkema named to oversee U.S. lawsuit against Google

Reuters

Published Jan 25, 2023 11:15AM ET

Updated Jan 25, 2023 01:06PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, one of the judges who stayed then-President Donald Trump's executive order restricting immigration into the United States, has been named to oversee the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google over its alleged abuse of dominance in online advertising technology.

The government on Tuesday argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, tackling a business that generated about 12 percent of Google's revenues in 2021 but also plays a vital role in the search engine and cloud company's overall sales.

Google said on Wednesday that the complaint was "without merit."

According to a filing to the docket late Tuesday, Brinkema, 78 and whose court is in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, was assigned to oversee the case. The government has asked for a jury trial.