Source: Global Market Express
Google is facing potential compensation claims of over 5 billion pounds (approximately 6.6 billion US dollars) in the UK, with allegations that this American technology giant abused its "near-monopoly position" in the online search market to drive up advertising prices. The class action lawsuit filed on Wednesday (April 17) at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal claims that Google consolidated its dominant position in the market by restricting competing search engines, making itself the only viable option for online search advertising.
The lawsuit was brought forward by Competition Law scholar Dr. O. Brook on behalf of tens of thousands of British institutions that used Google's search advertising services from January 1, 2011, to the time of filing. Dr. Brook stated in a press release on Tuesday: "Today, businesses of all sizes in the UK have almost no choice but to use Google ads. Global regulatory agencies describe Google as a monopolist, and getting visibility on Google's homepage is crucial for businesses. Google has been charging advertisers excessive fees by leveraging its dominant positions in general search and search advertising markets."
A UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) market study in 2020 showed that Google accounted for 90% of the revenue in the search advertising market. The lawsuit points out that Google has taken various measures to restrict search competition, including agreements with smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome browsers, as well as paying Apple billions of dollars to ensure it remains the default search engine on Safari browsers.
This is the latest legal challenge faced by this tech giant. In recent years, American tech giants from Google to Meta have faced numerous lawsuits, regulatory investigations, and fines due to their power and influence. In 2018, the EU fined Google 4.3 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in the Android system, and Google is still appealing this ruling.
In January this year, the UK CMA expressed concerns about cloud computing market competition issues and suggested investigating Amazon and Microsoft under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill. Previously, a class-action lawsuit filed in December 2024 accused Microsoft of overcharging competitors' cloud service customers, seeking compensation of more than 1 billion pounds.
Original Article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7493836077816463906/
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