A UK court has granted approval for a €16-billion class action suit against US giant Google, accused of abusing its dominant position in digital advertising.
The claimants argue that Google abused its leading position in the ad tech market, causing significant losses to UK online publishers, according to a statement issued by their lawyers. They allege that Google undermined content publishers’ earnings by raising the usage costs of its ad platform while reducing their earnings from online advertisements.
The suit is on behalf of individuals who published content on websites or mobile apps containing ad blocks that generated income between 1 January 2014 and 30 November 2022.
The lawsuit is "speculative and opportunistic," Google’s legal director, Oliver Bethell, said in a statement to French news agency AFP, adding that Google would vigorously oppose it, based on the facts.
Bethell stressed that Google works constructively with publishers in the UK and Europe, and that its advertising tools help millions of websites and apps to fund their content.
During the proceedings, the US giant argued that the claim was not sufficiently substantiated and criticised the claimants’ methodology. However, its arguments were dismissed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which decided to uphold the application for a class action suit.
A trial date has yet to be set.
