Google Faces UK Lawsuit Over Alleged Ad Tech Abuses

Google’s dominance in the online advertising market is under renewed scrutiny as the company fights a massive lawsuit filed in the UK. The lawsuit, seeking damages of up to $16.9 billion, accuses Google of abusing its market power to the detriment of website and app publishers based in the United Kingdom.

The suit, filed by the Ad Tech Collective Action group, alleges that Google’s practices have caused financial losses for publishers. Lawyers representing the group argued before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) that the case should proceed to trial. Google, however, contends that the lawsuit lacks coherence and fails to establish a clear link between its alleged anticompetitive behavior and the claimed financial losses.

This lawsuit is just one front in a broader battle against Google’s ad tech practices. Regulatory bodies around the world, including the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission (EC), are actively investigating Google’s ad tech business. The EC’s investigation, according to Ad Tech Collective Action’s lawyer, is nearing its conclusion.

The lawyer further highlighted the hefty fines – totaling billions of euros – previously imposed on Google by the EC for anticompetitive practices related to its online shopping search service and its requirement for pre-installing Google Search and Chrome on Android devices. Additionally, Google faces two separate antitrust lawsuits in the United States, one brought by the Department of Justice and another by a coalition of states.

Despite these legal challenges, Google maintains its innocence. The company, through its lawyers, has “strongly rejected” the allegations in the UK lawsuit and insists that its role in the ad tech industry has actually fostered competition.

The UK lawsuit against Google follows similar actions taken against other tech giants at the CAT. Earlier this year, the tribunal certified a $3.8 billion lawsuit against Facebook parent Meta and a nearly $1 billion lawsuit against Apple. These lawsuits underscore the growing scrutiny faced by Big Tech companies regarding their business practices and market dominance.