Google has requested the court to dismiss the Department of Justice’s lawsuit, alleging the tech giant of monopolizing ad tech.

Last year, Google was sued by the Department of Justice for purported anticompetitive behavior in the realm of digital advertising.

On Friday, Google submitted a motion in a federal court in Virginia requesting the dismissal of the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against it. The lawsuit, filed by the DOJ in January 2023, alleges that Google engaged in monopolistic behavior in the digital advertising sector through actions deemed anticompetitive and exclusionary. According to Bloomberg, Google is now seeking summary judgment to prevent the case from proceeding to trial in September as originally scheduled.

When the lawsuit was initially announced, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stated that Google employed anticompetitive and unlawful practices to eliminate or significantly reduce competition in digital advertising technologies. According to the lawsuit, Google’s control over digital advertising tools is so extensive that it garners over 30 percent of advertising revenue flowing through its digital advertising technology products, as per a press release from the agency last year.

Google is currently contending that the Department of Justice has not provided evidence demonstrating that the company commands at least 70 percent of the market, a threshold often used in previous cases to define a monopoly. According to Bloomberg, Google alleges that the agency has fabricated markets specifically for this case, omitting major competitors such as social media platforms. Additionally, Reuters reports that Google asserts the DOJ’s case exceeds the scope of antitrust law.