Hello there, great to have your company for this last MLEX podcast of the year.

We cover the big regulatory stories from around the world with the assistance of our team of reporters.

My name is James Panicki. I'm the senior editor for Emlex's Asia-Pacific coverage. Now, one for the sports fans

in about 10 minutes time. We'll take a look at how competition issues have weaved their way through

to the management of sporting events in Europe with the rights of two ice skaters at

centre stage. First up, though, how could we not acknowledge the tumultuous events unfolding

in a Texas courthouse where a posse of US states have banded together to take on search giant

Google? There have been two multi-state complaints filed against the company,

one submitted by Texas and nine other states alleging antitrust violations, and a second

filed by 38 attorneys general over Google's alleged illegal search monopolization. The lawsuits

were filed in Texas and Washington, D.C. Mike Swift is M-Nex's chief global digital risk correspondent, and he's based in San Francisco.

Dave Pereira is a technology correspondent from our offices in D.C.

Both Dave and Mike join me on today's podcast.

Now, Mike, the Google AdTech case is slated to play out in a small courthouse in Plano, Texas,

while the other big tech case will be in the federal district courthouse in Washington, D.C.

What are the ramifications of those different venues?

Well, there's a bunch.

One is that the Eastern District of Texas, where the Texas Attorney General filed suit,

is known as the Rocket Docket because it moves so quickly. So on the median time from filing a suit

to trial in the Eastern District of Texas is less than 18 months.

In Washington, D.C., it's almost four years.

So it's likely that Google's going to have a lot less time to prepare its defense in Texas.

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