The Google logo outside of its New York City offices, which closed on May 19, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ben Gabbe / Getty Images
The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google is unlikely to go to trial until late 2023, Judge Amit Mehta said at a hearing Friday.
Both parties agreed that it seemed like a probable chronology and the judge set September 12, 2023 as the provisional date to begin the trial.
The proposed timeline shows how long Google (and probably Facebook) will fight the U.S. government’s antitrust challenges. Google now faces three lawsuits from different groups of states and the Justice Department, some of which could be consolidated before the same judge.
This means that the scrutiny of the Google company is likely to remain in the spotlight for several years and that any potentially court-ordered changes will also take a long time. In the short term, this is good news for investors, who do not have to worry about immediate structural changes that could harm the value of the company, such as derivations of key business units. But it also means that Google will face a major distraction and may try to enter new areas of business and make big acquisitions over the next few years.
Mehta had indicated in previous hearings about the state that he wants to keep the case moving forward quickly. But the proposed time period shows that even a relatively fast process can take years. A DOJ lawyer estimated that the trial could take ten to twelve weeks, although a Google lawyer said he hoped it would take much less time assuming the case goes to trial. Mehta said he was setting the “over / under” line at five-and-a-half weeks.
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