In the UK, Google is facing a £5 billion ($6.6 billion) lawsuit for allegedly raising market prices by abusing its total control over search engines.
According to a case submitted on Wednesday to the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal, Google made itself the exclusive search advertising platform by using its market dominance to prevent rivals from entering search engine markets.
Thousands of businesses that used Google search advertising services between January 2011 and the claim’s filing date are represented by law professor Or Brook. She is being represented in this case by the law firm Geradin Partners.
Nowadays, Google AdWords is a necessary for all businesses in the UK, big and small, to advertise their goods and services effectively. Brook provided comments on the class action lawsuit on Tuesday. While ranking highly on Google is still essential for business, international regulators view Google as a monopoly.
“Google abuses its power in search marketing and search engine requirements to charge advertisers exorbitant fees,” the spokesperson said. As it pursues damages for UK advertising clients whose prices were unlawfully increased, this case attempts to hold Google responsible for violating its rules.
Google intends to vigorously contest the proceedings and sees the issue as speculative and opportunity-driven.
According to a source, Google is still necessary because its users see it as a useful tool rather than a one-stop shop, which makes it popular with both advertisers and customers.
A 2020 Competition and Markets Authority analysis found that Google received 90% of search advertising revenue in the UK.
While providing Apple billions to keep Google as Safari’s default search engine, Google is accused of taking a number of steps to restrict search engine competition, including contracts with smartphone makers for Google Search and Chrome on Android handsets.
The complaint claims that Search Ads 360’s advertising solutions are more feature-rich and capable than those of other companies.
Critics point to Big Tech
The American technology giant makes it the latest legal challenge. Indeed, U.S. Big Tech including from Google to Meta have come under the weight of a litany of lawsuits, regulatory investigation and fines over their blanket power and influence.
The European Union fined Google 4.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) in 2018 for abusing a 2012 mobile operating system because smartphone makers were compelled to preinstall Chrome and Search from its Play app store along with the Android operating system. They’re still fighting against the antitrust penalty that Google has received seven years back.
And in a landmark trial this week, an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission against Meta started in citichon with the trial officially entering the courtroom : this could force the social media giant to sell its WhatsApp and Instagram platforms.
The CMA made some competition concerns in January over the cloud computing market and has called for an investigation into Amazon and Microsoft under a landmark competition law called the Digital Markets, CMA Competition and Consumers Act.
Further to that, in December 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed against Microsoft for charging customers of rival cloud companies unfairly. Maria Luisa Stasi, who seeks more than their £1billion compensation for the firms affected, is the claimant in the case.
