Google, parent sued in Britain over online ads
Google and its parent Alphabet Inc. were sued in a U.K. court in a group antitrust claim by 130,000 businesses that argues the tech giant’s approach to advertising is expected to have cost companies billions of dollars in lost revenue.
The claim, filed at London’s U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal on Wednesday, accuses Google and its parent of abusing their dominant position in online advertising and “earning super-profits for itself at the expense of the tens of thousands of publishers of websites and mobile apps in the U.K.”
The case follows criticism that regulatory penalties — such as a $155.5 million French fine for mistreating companies using Google’s online advertising platform — aren’t enough to stop the U.S. tech giant’s anticompetitive behavior, said Toby Starr, a partner at law firm Humphries Kerstetter, who represents some of the claimants. The U.K. suit is being run alongside a European Union claim expected next year in the Netherlands.
“None of these regulatory actions will do anything to compensate the U.K. publishers of thousands of websites and mobile apps who have lost billions in advertising revenue because of Google’s actions,” Starr said in a statement. “The only way to recoup these losses is through a competition class action.”
A spokesperson for Google said the lawsuit is “speculative and opportunistic” and that the firm works constructively with publishers across Europe.
Britain’s opt-out classaction regime finally sparked into life last year after new laws allowed U.S.-style claims under competition law. Potential U.K. damages, which are based on estimates from possible losses likely run into the low tens of billions of dollars, according to the claimants.
Opt-out class-action style lawsuits mean someone affected doesn’t have to be involved in the case to be included or to get a share in any eventual award. The U.K. challenge adds to the scrutiny Google already faces in the EU. While Google’s antitrust run-ins with the European Commission have cost the company billions of dollars, the 2019 decision by the Autorite de la concurrence was its first such fine in France.