Google sued by 130,000 firms over ad dominance

Google has been sued in a claim by 130,000 firms that argue its advertising strategy has cost them billions of pounds in lost revenues.

The competition claim valued at up to £13.6bn at the Competition Appeal Tribunal accuses Google and its parent firm Alphabet of abusing its dominant position in online advertising and “earning super-profits for itself at the expense of the tens of thousands of publishers of websites and mobiles apps in the UK”.

“None of these regulatory actions will do anything to compensate the UK publishers of thousands of websites and mobile apps who have lost billions in advertising revenue because of Google’s actions,”Toby Starr, a partner at law firm Humphries Kerstetter, who represents some of the claimants, said in a statement.

“The only way to recoup these losses is through a competition class action.”

The UK legal action is being brought in parallel with an EU claim, expected to be filed in Netherlands early next year.

Starr has previously said alleged victims of Google’s anti-competitive conduct could have lost up to £7bn in revenues since 2014 because of the tech surrounding online banner ads.

He said the claim includes news websites up and down the country with large daily readerships as well as the thousands of small business owners who depend on advertising revenue.

The tech giant dominates the markets for ad tech services in the UK and across the world controlling up to 90% of the market in certain sectors. 

Google spokesperson said in a statement: “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 partnership with those same publishers.”