Google’s $2.3 million check helped the company get a trial by judge instead of jury

The antitrust lawsuit by the Justice Department and eight states seeking to break up Google’s alleged adtech monopoly will be heard by a judge this fall, as the company preferred. The government’s lawyers had included a damages claim in their lawsuit and pursued a trial by jury. Jury trials can be more unpredictable, like Epic’s courtroom win over Google last year, and a legal expert told The Verge that if the government was successful, it could make Google more likely to settle the case.

But Reuters reports that won’t happen after the company filed a copy of a $2.3 million cashier’s check — without admitting any liability or wrongdoing — that it said would be enough to cover triple the monetary damages requested by the government, if…

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