Google and its parent Alphabet Inc. were sued in a UK court over alleged antitrust abuses in a group claim by 130,000 businesses that argues the tech giant’s approach to advertising that may have cost companies billions in lost revenue.
(Bloomberg) — Google and its parent Alphabet Inc. were sued in a UK court over alleged antitrust abuses in a group claim by 130,000 businesses that argues the tech giant’s approach to advertising that may have cost companies billions in lost revenue.
The claim, filed at London’s UK 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 UK.”
Google earlier this year lost a court fight in France to topple a €150 million ($155.5 million) French fine for mistreating companies using its online advertising platform.
That fine and other investigations around the globe are not enough to stop Google, says, Toby Starr, a partner at City law firm Humphries Kerstetter, who represents some of the claimants. The UK 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 UK 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.”
Britain’s opt-out class-action regime finally sparked into life last year after new laws allowed US-style claims under competition law. Potential UK damages, which are based on estimates from possible losses could run into the low tens of billions, according to the claimants.
Opt-out class-action style lawsuits mean someone impacted doesn’t have to be involved in the case to be included or to get a share in any eventual award.
The UK challenge would add pressure to the scrutiny Google already faces in the EU. While Google’s antitrust run-ins in Europe have cost the tech giant billion of euros, the 2019 decision by the Autorite de la concurrence was its first such fine in France.
A spokesperson for Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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