$2.3B AD SUIT VS. GOOGLE
Media firms’ ‘losses’
Google on Wednesday was slapped with a $2.3 billion lawsuit by media giant Axel Springer and 31 other publishers, alleging that they suffered heavy losses due to the search giant’s practices in digital advertising.
The move by the group — which includes publishers in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden — comes as Europe’s antitrust regulators crack down on Google’s ad tech business.
The tech giant also faces a landmark case in the US claiming it holds a monopoly over search.
Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider, and the smaller publishers that account for the 55 brands in the complaint receive more than 1 billion monthly visits.
“The media companies involved have incurred losses due to a less competitive market, which is a direct result of Google’s misconduct,” the media firms’ counsel at Geradin Partners and Stek Lawyers said in a statement obtained by The Post.
“Without Google’s abuse of its dominant position, the media companies would have received significantly higher revenues from advertising and paid lower fees for ad tech services,” the lawyers added.
“Crucially, these funds could have been reinvested into strengthening the European media landscape.”
They cited the French competition authority’s nearly $240 million fine against Google on its ad tech business in 2021 as well as the European Commission’s charges last year to buttress their group claim.
The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Amsterdam, “a key jurisdiction for antitrust damages claims in Europe,” the lawyers said.
‘Oppose it vigorously’
Google’s legal director, Oliver Bethell, denied the claims in a statement to The Post, saying, “This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic. We’ll oppose it vigorously and on the facts.”
Google last year said it disagreed with EU antitrust charges against its ad tech business where it is involved in both the buy-side as well as the sell-side of the ad-tech business.
“Google works constructively with publishers across Europe — our advertising tools, and those of our many adtech competitors, help millions of websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” Bethell said.