Pair Of Derivative Complaints Target Alphabet Executives Over Alleged Antitrust Activities

Update:

• U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg again dismissed Alphabet investors’ suit alleging the board of directors knowingly collected children’s online data on YouTube.
• Seeborg said the investors did not prove demand futility, which is the standard shareholders must meet to file a derivative suit without first taking their complaints to the company’s board, by demonstrating that any of the company’s directors stood to gain a personal benefit from the alleged COPPA violation, Law 360 reports.
• The investors argue that the directors ignored COPPA compliance for the sake of profit; however, those claims are vague and don’t include how the directors personally benefited, the judge said.
• In August, Seeborg tossed the first version of the consolidated suit, finding shareholders hadn’t sufficiently alleged the directors actually acted in bad faith, according to Law 360.

Alphabet Executives Antitrust Lawsuits Overview: 

• Who: Bucks County Employee’ Retirement System and the Police and Fire Department System of the City of Detroit have filed separate derivative complaints against Alphabet Inc. executives. 
• Why: Plaintiffs claim executive mismanagement has left the company liable for billions of dollars in damages, harming investors.
• Where: The lawsuits were filed in California federal court.

(12/10/2021)

Executive mismanagement by Alphabet Inc. could cost Google’s parent company billions of dollars in damages, harming investors, a pair of new derivative complaints allege. 

Plaintiffs Bucks County Employee’ Retirement System and the Police and Fire Department System of the City of Detroit separately claim Alphabet executives have long-engaged in antitrust and monopolistic activities.

“Alphabet and Google have suffered reputational harm that is difficult to value,” states Bucks County’s complaint. “In addition, they could be liable for billions of dollars in damages when the antitrust actions conclude.”

Plaintiffs argue that ongoing litigation into Alphabet’s anticompetitive practices is costing the company millions of dollars while also interrupting business operations. 

The claims center around Google’s alleged use of its search engine, navigation and digital advertising dominance to gain an advantage on its competitors. 

Plaintiffs also point to the fact that Google is facing Congressional scrutiny and that its Google Play Store is currently involved in a number of private antitrust complaints. 

“These lawsuits have become so numerous that many lawsuits relating to advertising and the Google Play Store have been consolidated into MDLs in California and New York,” the plaintiffs say. 

Lawsuits Name Specific Alphabet Executives As Defendants

Both lawsuits name specific Alphabet executives as defendants, including Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders and Alphabet’s previous CEO and president, respectively. 

The Police and Fire Department System of the City of Detroit claims Brin and Page have “not been shy to directly implicate himself in violations of antitrust laws,” pointing to anti-poaching practices Brin was allegedly “intimately involved in.” 

Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO from 2001-2011 and former Alphabet executive chairman, is also named in the complaints. 

“Defendants Page, Brin and Schmidt have all exhibited a willingness to openly and actively flaunt antitrust laws in the past,” says the Police and Fire Department System of the City of Detroit. “Their roles as controlling stockholders and executives of the Company are the primary driver of Alphabet’s illegal business practices.”

Both plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial and requesting damages, along with restitution for Alphabet from the individual defendants, among other forms of relief.

Do you believe you have been injured by the alleged antitrust actions of Alphabet’s executives? Let us know in the comments! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Alex M. Outwater, Geoffrey M. Johnson, Donald A. Broggi, Scott R. Jacobsen, and Jing-Li Yu of Scott+Scott Attorneys At Law LLP, and Michael J. Boni of Boni Zack & Snyder LLC. 

The Alphabet Executives Antitrust Lawsuits are Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit v. Page, et al., Case No. 5:21-cv-09388, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California; and Bucks County Employees’ Retirement System v. Page, et al., Case No. 5:21-cv-09389, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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