A group called Ad Tech Collective Action claims online publishers in the UK have suffered losses because of Google’s unfair monopoly in advertising technologies.
Google parent Alphabet will face a £13.6bn lawsuit brought forward by online publishers in the UK accusing the tech giant of anticompetitive behaviour in the adtech space.
In a ruling published today (5 June), the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal said that the adtech lawsuit brought forward by Ad Tech Collective Action, a group that represents online publishers in the UK, can now go ahead despite attempts made by Google to stop it.
When the lawsuit was first brought forward, parent company Alphabet called it “incoherent” and urged the tribunal in London to block the case. A trial is now expected to be held late next year.
Essentially, Ad Tech Collective Action claims that many online publishers in the UK have suffered losses because of Google’s unfair monopoly in advertising technologies.
In its ruling, the tribunal said Ad Tech Collective has demonstrated that its allegations are “trialable” and “that the harm to the class and the loss and damage suffered by it can be quantified”.
Google has long come under fire for alleged anticompetitive practices. The latest lawsuit comes just weeks after Rumble, a video-sharing platform and cloud services provider, sued the tech giant for having “monopolised the adtech stack” by acquiring companies that represent “both ad buyers and sellers”.
Rumble alleges that Google can “rig the system” and extract “supracompetitive fees” from transactions and claims that its own success has been “taxed” as a result of Google’s actions. It is seeking injunctive relief and damages of more than $1bn in court.
Google is also facing claims from other organisations that it operates a monopoly in terms of its search engine. The company is in the end stages of a massive antitrust trial in the US, which was previously described as the biggest since the US challenged Microsoft’s dominance in 1998.
If the US trial goes against Google, it could lead to the tech giant being broken up into smaller entities and could have a significant impact on the tech sector. Last year, a jury voted that Google has monopoly power when it comes to its Play Store in case launched by Epic Games.
Google has insisted that its practices do not constitute anticompetitive behaviour. A Google spokesperson told Reuters last month that Rumble’s recent claims were “wrong” and said the company would show in court how its advertising products “benefit publishers”.
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