Google is facing a class action lawsuit in the UK for £5 billion ($6.6 billion) in potential damages over allegations that the tech giant abused its stranglehold on the search market to drive up advertising prices.
CNBC reports that a class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal claims that Google abused its position to restrict competing search engines and bolster its dominant position in the market, making itself the only viable destination for online search advertising. The suit is being brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of UK-based organizations that used Google’s search advertising services from January 2011 up until when the claim was filed.
Google previously lost an antitrust lawsuit in the United States with a federal judge ruling that the tech giant has illegally held a monopoly in search and text advertising over the past decade.
The UK lawsuit, led by competition law academic Or Brook and represented by law firm Geradin Partners, alleges that Google has taken several steps to restrict competition in search. These include entering into deals with smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on Android devices, paying Apple billions to ensure Google is the default search engine on its Safari browser, and ensuring its search management tool Search Ads 360 offers better functionality with its own advertising products compared to competitors.
A 2020 market study by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition regulator, found that 90 percent of all revenue in the search advertising market was earned by Google. Brook stated, “Today, UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services. Regulators around the world have described Google as a monopoly and securing a spot on Google’s top pages is essential for visibility.”
Google has called the case “yet another speculative and opportunistic case” and plans to “argue against it vigorously.” A spokesperson told CNBC, “Consumers and advertisers use Google because it helpful, not because there are no alternatives.”
This lawsuit is the latest legal challenge for the American technology giant, as U.S. Big Tech firms ranging from Google to Meta have been hit with numerous lawsuits, regulatory investigations, and fines over concerns surrounding their power and influence. In 2018, Google was fined 4.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) by the European Union for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system, and seven years later, the company is still appealing the antitrust penalty.
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
