Google Ad Cases Show How Binding Government Judgments Shape MDLs

Antitrust attorneys Jennifer Lada, David Kully and Laura Askinazi co-authored a Bloomberg Law article examining how a government win against Google's advertising business is reshaping follow-on multidistrict litigation (MDL) in New York. The authors discuss the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York's decision to apply the doctrine of collateral estoppel (issue preclusion) broadly by adopting liability findings from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which effectively prevents Google from relitigating issues such as monopoly power and anticompetitive conduct. They explain that this approach reduces the private plaintiffs' burden toward proving causation and damages only, instead of demonstrating wrongdoing, thus increasing financial exposure and settlement pressure. The article concludes that the MDL ruling serves as a reminder that an adverse government antitrust judgment can set the trajectory for subsequent private litigation and reminds companies to pay attention to these cases that can inform enterprise-wide risk, compliance and defense strategy.

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