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LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Google was sued on Wednesday by a group of British website publishers who accused the U.S. company and its parent Alphabet of abusing their dominant position in online advertising, depriving them of revenue.
The class action claim was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal on behalf of 130,000 businesses that publish about 1.75 million websites and apps in Britain, law firms Humphries Kerstetter and Garradine Partners said in a statement.
Google dismissed the lawsuit in an emailed statement.
“Google works creatively with publishers across Europe — our advertising tools, and many of our 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. Partnerships with the same publishers. This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic,” a company spokesperson said.
The online advertising market has been scrutinized by regulators in Britain, the European Union and the United States, and a 150 million euro fine imposed on Google by France’s antitrust watchdog was upheld earlier this year.
Toby Starr, the partner at Humphries Kerstetter who is leading the suit, said multiple investigations into Google’s advertising practices are underway.
“However, none of these regulatory actions will do anything to compensate the thousands of UK publishers of websites and mobile apps who have lost billions in advertising revenue due to Google’s actions,” he said.
“The only way to recover these damages is through a competition class action.”
The action parallels an EU lawsuit that is expected to be filed in the Netherlands next year, law firms said.
Law firms said economic analysis carried out for the lawsuit suggested Google’s actions could cut advertising revenue by up to 40% for some companies, and total losses to businesses since 2014 were estimated at 13.6 billion pounds ($16.33 billion). ).
($1 = 0.8328 pounds)
Reporting by Paul Sandle; Edited by Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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