U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel for the Northern
District in San Jose dismissed a lawsuit brought by
Kinderstart.com that accused Google in March 2006 of "pervasive
monopolistic practices" that led to the denial of the
site's free speech rights, prevention and destruction of
competition, and predatory pricing. Kinderstart, a parenting search engine site, filed its suit after
suffering an approximate 70 percent drop in monthly
traffic after Google buried its visibility in search
results.
Google argued in court that its rankings were
opinions and therefore protected by the US
constitution's first amendment, which protects freedom
of speech. The Judge wrote in his decision that,
"Kinderstart has failed to allege any conduct on the
part of Google that significantly threatens or harms
competition." Kinderstart will have the opportunity to
amend all nine counts of its lawsuit.