Here’s how EU and UK publishers go to (legal) war against Google
Google has been sued in the UK and the Netherlands. Two lawsuits filed to seek damages on behalf of publishers claiming to have been harmed by anti-competitive adtech practices
Google sued for its digital advertising practices.
In the coming weeks, two lawsuits will be filed in British and Dutch courts by a law firm on behalf of publishers who have suffered damages from Google's alleged anti-competitive conduct.
According to the Guardian , Google risks paying up to € 25 billion in compensation to publishers for the loss of advertising revenue due to the litigation.
The Mountain View tech giant, which is a key player in the online ad market as well as dominating the online search industry ( here's Startmag 's insight into why Google is covering Apple and Samsung gold ), is accused of abusing its own. power in the ad tech market, which coordinates the sale of online advertising space between publishers and advertisers.
As Reuters recalls, the French antitrust fined the company last year of 220 million euros.The French antitrust investigation focused on the tools that Google offers online publishers to sell and manage online ads. Meanwhile, the European Commission and UK antitrust are investigating whether Google's adtech business gives the company an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers.
Meanwhile, Google has criticized the upcoming lawsuits. The company said it works constructively with publishers across Europe.
All the details.
THE ACCUSATION
"Publishers, including local and national media that play a vital role in our society, have long been harmed by Google's anti-competitive conduct," said Damien Geradin, of the Belgian law firm Geradin Partners, who took charge of the collective action for the EU.
“It is time for Google to take responsibility and make good the damage it has caused to this important industry. That is why today we are announcing these actions in two jurisdictions to obtain compensation for EU and UK publishers, ”added Geradin.
TWO PARALLEL CAUSES
The Dutch action is a collective compensation claim representing EU publishers will be "opt-in", so potential plaintiffs will have to explicitly ask to join the lawsuit. In the UK, however, the claim will be an “opt-put” type, which means that the parties to the dispute will automatically be dealt with as part of the lawsuit.
THE GOOGLE POSITION
But Big G firmly rejects the allegations and promises battle.
“Google works constructively with publishers across Europe – our advertising tools and those of our many adtech competitors help millions of websites and apps fund their content and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers. These services adapt and evolve in collaboration with the same publishers, ”said a spokesperson for Google.
“This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic. When we receive the complaint, we will fight it vigorously ”concluded the company spokesperson.
THE FRENCH FINE
However, last year the French antitrust found that the tech giant had abused a dominant position for ad servers for website publishers and mobile apps, fining Google up to 220 million euros for a series of abuse of self-preference; and extract a set of interoperability commitments. The French regulator called the case the first in the world to probe its complex algorithmic advertising auctions.
Specifically, the authority found that Google Ad Manager, the company's ad management platform for large publishers, favored AdX, its online advertising marketplace, where publishers sell space to advertisers in real time. It did this specifically by providing strategic AdX data such as winning bid prices. The regulator also said that Google AdX has offered Google Ad Manager superior interoperability capabilities over so-called rival sell-side platforms (SSPs), the crucial technology that allows publishers to manage the ad spaces available for purchase, fill them with ads and receive revenue.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/ecco-come-gli-editori-di-ue-e-regno-unito-vanno-alla-guerra-legale-contro-google/ on Wed, 14 Sep 2022 07:02:44 +0000.