Steptoe Cyberlaw Podcast

The big cyberlaw story of the week is the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google and the many hats it wears in the online ad ecosystem. Lee Berger explains the Justice Department’s theory, which is not dissimilar to the Texas attorney general’s two-year-old claims. When you have lost both the Biden administration and the Texas attorney general, I suggest, you cannot look too many places for friends—and certainly not to Brussels, which is also pursuing similar claims of its own. So what is the Justice Department’s late-to-the-party contribution? At least two things, Lee suggests: a jury demand that will put all those complex Borkian consumer-welfare doctrines in front of a northern Virginia jury and a “rocket docket” that will allow Justice to catch up with and maybe lap the other lawsuits against the company. This case looks as though it will be long and ugly for Google, unless it turns out to be short and ugly. Mark reminds us that, for the Justice Department, finding an effective remedy may