May 20 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google has

preemptively paid damages to the U.S. government, an unusual

move aimed at avoiding a jury trial in the Justice Department's

antitrust lawsuit over its digital advertising business.

Google disclosed the payment, but not the amount, in a court

filing last week that said the case should be heard and decided

by a judge directly. Without a monetary damages claim, Google

argued, the government has no right to a jury trial.

The Justice Department, which has not said if it will accept

the payment, declined to comment on the filing. Google asserted

that its check, which it said covered its alleged overcharges

for online ads, allows it to sidestep a jury trial whether or

not the government takes it.

The Justice Department filed the case last year with

Virginia and other states, alleging Google was stifling

competition for advertising technology. The government has said

Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite.

Google, which has denied the allegations, said in a

statement that the Justice Department "manufactured a damages

claim at the last minute in an attempt to secure a jury trial."

Without disclosing the size of its payment, Google said that

after months of discovery, the Justice Department could only

point to estimated damages of less than $1 million.

The company said the government has said the case is "highly

technical" and "outside the everyday knowledge of most

prospective jurors."

The Justice Department will have a chance to respond to

Google's arguments before a judge considers the question at a

hearing scheduled for June 21 in Alexandria, Virginia, federal

court. The trial is set for September, currently before a jury.

Stanford Law School's Mark Lemley told Reuters he was

skeptical Google's gambit would prevail. He said a jury could

ultimately decide higher damages than whatever Google put

forward.

"Antitrust cases regularly go to juries. I think it is a

sign that Google is worried about what a jury will do," Lemley

said.

Another legal scholar, Herbert Hovenkamp of the University

of Pennsylvania's law school, called Google's move "smart" in a

post on X. "Juries are bad at deciding technical cases, and

further they do not have the authority to order a breakup," he

wrote.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 2016 case that an offer

for "complete relief" did not wipe out a class-action claim. But

Google argued its payment is different, because it submitted an

actual check and not merely an offer.

Google has faced two antitrust trials in recent months, but

only one involved a jury.

In that case, a jury in San Francisco ruled for "Fortnite"

maker Epic Games that Google illegally barred competing Android

app stores and forced developers to use its payment system for

in-app transactions.

In the other case, a Washington, D.C. federal judge is

weighing allegations that Google has unlawfully stifled

competition for web search. The court heard closing arguments

this month but has not ruled.

The case is United States v. Google LLC, U.S. District Court

for the Eastern District of Virginia, No. 1:23-cv-00108.

For U.S.: Julia Tarver Wood and Aaron Teitelbaum of the

Department of Justice

For Google: Eric Mahr and Andrew Ewalt of Freshfields

Bruckhaus Deringer; Kannon Shanmugam and Karen Dunn of Paul,

Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Daniel Bitton and

Bradley Justus of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider

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