Jan 17 (Reuters) - Google has failed to persuade a judge

in California to throw out a lawsuit accusing the technology

giant of monopolizing the online search market.

San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in a ruling

on Thursday said consumers can proceed for now with allegations

that the Alphabet unit's business practices hampered

the development of high-quality rival search engines.

The lawsuit filed in 2022, accused Google of unlawfully

scheming with Apple ( AAPL ) to make Google the exclusive

preloaded default search engine on the iPhone maker's devices.

Lin dismissed other claims in the lawsuit related to

Google's text advertising and said the plaintiffs could not

include Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and the Alphabet

unit's former chief Eric Schmidt as defendants.

Google and attorneys for the 26 consumers who filed the

lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Google has denied any wrongdoing. Apple ( AAPL ) is not a defendant.

Lin's latest ruling comes after the plaintiffs amended their

complaint following a ruling in August against Google by a

federal judge in Washington, D.C.

In that decision, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that

Google's exclusive contracts with Apple ( AAPL ) and other companies

helped it create an illegal monopoly over search engines.

Google countered that the D.C. judge's order, which the

company is fighting, does not help the consumer plaintiffs in

the California case. Google said the consumers' lawsuit rested

on unfounded allegations.

Lin said the plaintiffs had shown enough detail to contend

that Google's exclusive contracts for default status have hurt

market competition.

At this stage in the case, Lin wrote, the consumers' claims

support their conclusion that in a more competitive market

"viable search alternatives would have emerged that offer

greater privacy protections or are less clogged with ads."

Lin set the next hearing in the case for Feb. 12.

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

Northern District of California, No. 22-cv-02499-RFL.

For plaintiffs: Joseph Alioto of Alioto Law Firm, and

Lawrence Papale of Law Office of Lawrence Papale

For Google: John Schmidtlein and Carol Pruski of Williams &

Connolly

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