Its digital advertising practices continue to bring troubles for Google. Two separate cases will go to court in the UK and in the Netherlands. These are on behalf of publishers, who seek “compensation” from the company. They accuse Google of anti-competitive conduct, and of abusing its dominant place.
At this moment, Google’s market share is over 90%. As this is a valuable source of income for publishers, the tech giant seems to use its dominance. So, the EU and UK authorities investigate if this gives it an unfair advantage over advertisers and rivals.
So, experts consider that Google is now under pressure, for both anti-trust and data protection. Johnny Ryan, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, emphasized that the previous fines have not had any consequence.
Moreover, the lawyer involved in the Dutch case explained that publishers “have long been harmed by Google’s anti-competitive conduct”. “It is time that Google owns up to its responsibilities and pays back the damages it has caused,” Damien Geradin said.
In the UK case, owners of websites carrying banner advertising are seeking compensation. If they succeed, all-size websites producing online content could get compensation. Still, those who do not want to get involved can opt out.
Lawyers consider that such claim could determine Google change its practices. According to them, the victims collectively lost about £7 billion because of the “anti-competitive conduct in ad tech”.
At this moment, the UK competition watchdog is also investigating Google’s power in the digital advertising market.
On the other hand, the Dutch case is a collective one, and it is open to European publishers. So, the Stek law company has teamed with Geradin Partners for this. Jan Bart van de Hel, from Stek, said that it is important to take action and prevent “Google’s anti-competitive conduct”.
UK litigation funder Harbour funds both lawsuits.
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