Two consumer groups Wednesday asked a federal official to recuse herself from an antitrust review of Google Inc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of Doubleclick.
John M. Majoras, a partner who specializes in antitrust at the Jones Day law firm representing DoubleClick, is married to Deborah Platt Majoras, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, the groups said in a petition to the agency.
Deborah Majoras was a partner at Jones Day before being appointed to run the federal antitrust agency.
She "is reviewing the petition with the chief ethics officer," Claudia Bourne Farrell, an FTC spokeswoman, said. "We only learned yesterday that Jones Day is representing DoubleClick before the European Commission, not the Federal Trade Commission. Jones Day has not appeared before the FTC in this matter."
John Majoras said that Jones Day is not representing DoubleClick before the FTC. He said he is not personally involved in any aspect of the deal, in the United States or in Europe.
Jones Day's Web site says that it is representing DoubleClick, an online advertising services firm, "on the international and U.S. antitrust and competition law aspects" of the deal, the groups' petition said.
The Web site lists five "principal professionals" involved in the deal, but doesn't include Majoras.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, which have criticized the deal on privacy grounds, said in their petition that they discovered the relationship on Dec. 10. It "calls into question the ability of the commission to render decisions that are fair and just," the petition added.
"This should have been part of the record from Day One," Jeff Chester, executive director of CDD, said.
Majoras has recused herself in other antitrust reviews when Jones Day has been involved, the petition claimed.
The FTC decision on the acquisition by the world's largest Internet search engine company had been expected as early as next week.
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