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The front to Google’s U.Okay. workplaces in London.
Olly Curtis | Future Publishing | by the use of Getty Images
LONDON — Google is being sued for £5 billion ($6.6 billion) in doable damages within the U.Okay. over allegations that the U.S. tech large abused its “near-total dominance” within the on-line seek marketplace to pressure up costs.
A category motion lawsuit filed Wednesday within the U.Okay. Competition Appeal Tribunal claims that Google abused its place to limit competing search engines like google and, in flip, bolster its dominant place available in the market and make itself the one viable vacation spot for on-line seek promoting.
It is being introduced via competitors regulation instructional Or Brook on behalf of loads of hundreds of U.Okay.-based organizations that used Google’s seek promoting products and services from Jan. 1, 2011, up till when the declare used to be filed. She is being represented via regulation company Geradin Partners.
“Today, UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services,” Brook stated in a observation Tuesday. “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 been leveraging its dominance within the common seek and seek promoting marketplace to overcharge advertisers,” she added. “This magnificence motion is ready keeping Google answerable for its illegal practices and searching for reimbursement on behalf of UK advertisers who’ve been overcharged.”
Google called the case “but any other speculative and opportunistic case” and said that it plans to “argue in opposition to it vigorously.”
“Consumers and advertisers use Google as it useful, no longer as a result of there aren’t any choices,” a spokesperson told CNBC.
A 2020 market study from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) — the U.K.’s competition regulator — found that 90% of all revenue in the search advertising market was earned by Google.
The lawsuit claims that Google has taken a number of steps to restrict competition in search, including entering into deals with smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on Android devices and paying Apple billions to ensure Google is the default search engine on its Safari browser.
It also alleges Google ensures its search management tool Search Ads 360 offers better functionality and more features with its own advertising products than that of competitors.
Big Tech under fire
It is the latest legal challenge for the American technology giant. U.S. Big Tech firms ranging from Google to Meta have been hit with a multitude of lawsuits, regulatory investigations and fines over concerns surrounding their sheer 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 by forcing smartphone makers to pre-install Chrome and Search in a bundle with its Play app store. Seven years on, Google is still appealing the antitrust penalty.
This week, an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission against Meta officially entered the courtroom in a landmark trial that could ultimately force the social media giant to sell its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.
In January, the U.K.’s CMA raised concerns over competition issues in the cloud computing market, recommending an investigation into Amazon and Microsoft under a landmark competition law known as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.
That came after a class action lawsuit filed in December 2024 accused Microsoft of unfairly overcharging customers of rival cloud companies. The claimant in the case, competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, is seeking more than £1 billion in compensation for firms affected.
