NYREADERS.COM – Over 30 European news media companies, including Axel Springer and Schibsted, have filed lawsuits against the giant tech company Google over abuse of dominance in ad tech.
The lawsuit was filed by Geradin Partners on behalf of those companies in the District Court of Amsterdam on Feb. 28, 2024.
“Over 30 European news media companies today (28/02) filed a EUR 2.1 billion (US$2.3 billion) damages claim against Google in relation to its practices in ad tech,” Geradin Partners said in a statement published on its website.
“Google’s conduct was found to be an abuse of dominance by the French competition authority in June 2021,” it said.
Following this, the European Commission opened proceedings against Google and issued a statement of objections in June 2023.
Geradin Partners, with offices in Brussels, Amsterdam and London, has been instructed to represent the claimants, alongside Dutch litigation firm Stek and economist consultancy Charles River Associates.
The case is funded by Harbour.
Geradin Partners previously acted for the complainants in the French investigation, as well as for the European Publishers Council in its complaint to the European Commission.
It is also one of three solicitor firms instructed in the opt-out class action brought against Google in the UK relating to the same ad tech practices.
The media companies include publishers in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden. The lawsuit was filed as antitrust regulators also cracked down on Google's ad tech business.
The lawsuit was the latest legal action undertaken by media companies. Last year, Gannet, a major US-based media house filed a lawsuit against Google in the Southern District of New York. Gannett sued Google because of illegally monopolizing the advertising technology market.
In the filing, Gannett said that at present online digital advertising is a $200 billion business — a nine-fold increase since 2009. Despite the opportunity for publishers to produce more news content and earn more revenue, news publications’ advertising revenue has declined by nearly 70% over the same time frame.
Google is yet to make a statement in response to the lawsuit. (*)
