According to the latest report, Google suffered two lawsuits today, accusing its digital advertising business of harming the interests of publishers, claiming up to 25 billion euros (about 25.4 billion US dollars).
On Tuesday, Geradin Partners, a law firm representing publishers’ interests, filed two lawsuits against Google in British and Dutch courts, alleging that its digital advertising business practices harmed publishers’ interests.
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Damien Geradin, founder of the law firm Damien Geradin, said: “It is time for Google to take responsibility and pay for the damage it has caused to this important industry. Jurisdictions have taken action to seek compensation for publishers in the EU and UK.”
As early as last June, the EU announced an investigation into Google’s online advertising business to assess whether it violated EU fair competition laws. The European Commission said at the time that the investigation was aimed at assessing whether Google used technical means to suppress rivals in online advertising.
The EU investigation focused on whether Google distorted market competition by restricting third-party companies access to user data while keeping it for its own use.
European Union Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said at the time that Google is present in almost every link of the online advertising supply chain, as it collects advertising data, sells ad space, and acts as an intermediary for online advertising. This makes it difficult for competitors in the online advertising services space to compete fairly.
Last year, France fined Google 220 million euros for abusing its dominance of the online advertising market. In 2020, Google earned $147 billion from online advertising, more than any other company in the world.
