As Google faces a growing number of antitrust lawsuits over its Google Play store practices, the company has tapped powerhouse law firms O’Melveny & Myers and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to fight the litigation.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in July, claims the only option for app developers is to use the Google Play store for Android app distribution because the technology giant has “targeted potentially competing app stores.” More than 30 states are suing the company alleging its practices illegally eliminate competition.
Google’s attorneys have not submitted notices of appearance, but a motion filed on Thursday lists O’Melveny’s Daniel Petrocelli and Ian Simmons and Morgan Lewis’ Brian Rocca and Sujal Shah as among the attorneys tapped by Google.
Petrocelli, chairman of O’Melveny’s trial practice and a vice chairman of the firm, helped win one of the biggest merger challenges in decades after he successfully argued for the approval of the $85 billion union of AT&T and Time Warner in 2018.
A partner at O’Melveny in Washington, D.C., Simmonsrecently defended bitcoin pioneer Roger Ver and other bitcoin-related entities in what attorneys have said is the country’s first antitrust case involving cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In 2018, he led a team of lawyers represented Samsung Electronics in multidistrict litigation alleging the company was part of a conspiracy to fix prices for optical disk drives and fought off claims seeking $3 billion in damages.
Antitrust litigator Rocca was named co-managing partner of Morgan Lewis’ San Francisco office in 2015. He has represented Uber in a number of cases, including before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 2017 when the Philadelphia Taxi Association accused the ride-hailing company of violating antitrust laws. Rocca and Shah both successfully argued the case.
The lawyers’ appearance in California comes as Google faces mounting antitrust litigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice has also filed a suit against Google accusing the company of using anti-competitive tactics to maintain a monopoly for its popular search engine and related advertising business in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Last August, app developerEpic Games Inc.suedGoogle over its decision to remove its video game Fortnite from the Google Play store after the developer added an alternative payment option for in-app purchases.
In a blog post in response to the suit filed in California, Google’s Senior Director of Public Policy denied the accusations against it.“If you don’t find the app you’re looking for in Google Play, you can choose to download the app from a rival app store or directly from a developer’s website. We don’t impose the same restrictions as other mobile operating systems do. So it’s strange that a group of state attorneys general chose to file a lawsuit attacking a system that provides more openness and choice than others,” the post reads.
O’Melveny and Morgan Lewis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.