The lawsuit alleges that the search giant acted anti-competitively, and through its conduct caused harm to online publishers in the UK.
A court has accepted a lawsuit requiring Google to pay 13.6 billion pounds ($16.9 billion) for claiming it has too much power in the online advertising market. The BBC reported it.
According to the lawsuit filed by Ad Tech Collective Action LLP, the search giant is anti-competitive and has harmed online publishers in the UK.
Google’s parent company Alphabet called the lawsuit “inconsistent” and its legal director Oliver Bethell called the lawsuit “speculative and opportunistic.” However, the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London ruled that the case would go to trial.
Advertising is known to be a huge source of revenue for many websites—digital ad spending will reach $490 billion by 2021, according to Ad Tech Collective Action. It’s also a very important area for Google because it dominates web search.
The lawsuit alleges that Google is abusing its dominant position by undercutting websites’ revenues and promoting its own products and services more prominently than those of competitors. This means publishers get less money for the ads they run and also have to pay higher fees to Google.
As the publication writes, it will take a long time to resolve all this – eighteen months have passed, and a court date has not yet been set. The case is being funded by an unidentified third party and the UK publishers who are part of the suit will not pay the costs of the litigation.
It was previously reported that Apple, Google and Meta face fines of 10% of revenue due to new legislation aimed at limiting the influence of large technology companies.
We remind you that the French antimonopoly authority imposed a fine of 250 million euros on Google for failing to fulfill its obligations to publications in the field of content licensing.
Source: korrespondent
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.