Google parent, Alphabet, urges London tribunal to block lawsuit on online advertising market dominance
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has asked a London tribunal to stop a class action lawsuit alleging it abused its dominance in the online advertising market.
In response to Google’s alleged anticompetitive activity, publishers of websites and apps operating in the United Kingdom are suing Google for damages up to 13.6 billion pounds ($16.9 billion), according to a report from Reuters.
At the beginning of a three-day hearing on Wednesday, attorneys representing Ad Tech Collective Action requested that the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) certify the case so that it can move forward with a trial.
Google, on the other hand, claimed that the case lacked coherence and did not clarify how the publishers had allegedly suffered losses as a result of purported anticompetitive behaviour.
The tech giant is also defending itself against two cases in the United States that alleged anticompetitive behaviour on the part of the Department of Justice and Texas and other states.
The company “strongly rejects the underlying allegations against it”, its lawyers said in court documents for the CAT case. “Google’s impact in the ad tech industry has been hugely pro-competitive.”
The case is being investigated by authorities, including the European Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority of Britain, into Google’s ad tech company. According to O’Donoghue, these investigations will soon come to an end.
O’Donoghue also mentioned two multibillion-euro fines that Google had to pay the European Commission for their online retail search service and for forcing Google Search and Chrome to pre-install on Android smartphones.
We earlier reported that Google is launching a $75 million Google.org AI Opportunity Fund in addition to investing $1 billion in developing its data centre facilities in Virginia.
Google President and CEO Ruth Porat disclosed the plans during a recent media briefing.