Last June, the European Commission launched an investigation into Google’s digital advertising activities. According to Reuters, EU regulators recently expanded the case by taking over an investigation into the same matter by the Portuguese competition watchdog.
Now Google is facing new lawsuits filed in courts in the UK and the Netherlands. Its purpose is to recover advertising revenue lost due to the company’s allegedly anti-competitive behavior over several years. The total amount of compensation could be up to $25 billion.
“This significant lawsuit will represent a class of victims of Google’s anti-competitive behavior in the ad tech space, who have collectively lost around £7bn. This includes news sites across the country with large daily audiences, as well as thousands of small business owners who depend on ad revenue. whether it be a fishing website, a food blog, a football fanzine or other online content that they have spent time creating and publishing,” said Toby Starr, partner at Humphries Kerstetter, a UK law firm that plans to take the case to an appeals court for competition.
It is noted that the British lawsuit is open, so any victim will automatically participate in the lawsuit, unless they state otherwise. The Dutch case is voluntary, so people will have to join the suit themselves. In the UK alone, many thousands of individuals are expected to be involved in the suit.
Google reacted to the lawsuit, calling it “speculative and opportunistic”, adding that it intends to actively fight it.
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Source: techspot
