Google Faces $25 Billion Legal Action In UK, EU

Google is facing two legal cases which could result in the tech giant paying out damages of up to ~$25 billion (19.5 billion pounds) over its digital advertising practices. The BBC reports: The company is accused of anti-competitive conduct, and of abusing its dominant place in the ad tech market. Separate legal cases, in the UK and in the Netherlands, are being filed in the coming weeks on behalf of publishers seeking "compensation" from Google. [...] The European Commission and its UK equivalent are investigating whether Google's dominance in the ad tech business gives it an unfair advantage over rivals and advertisers. The French competition watchdog imposed a 220 million euro fine on the company last year. Johnny Ryan, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, told the BBC: "Google is under pressure on two big issues - one is anti-trust and the other is data protection." Mr Ryan said more cases were coming to light as competition enforcers around the world "increasingly put demands on Google." But he added "the fines we have seen so far from competition authorities have had absolutely no consequence whatsoever."

Damien Geradin, of the Belgian law firm Geradin Partners -- which is involved in the Dutch case -- said, "Publishers, including local and national news media, who play a vital role in our society, have long been harmed by Google's anti-competitive conduct. It is time that Google owns up to its responsibilities and pays back the damages it has caused to this important industry. That is why today we are announcing these actions across two jurisdictions to obtain compensation for EU and UK publishers."

The British claim, at the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, will seek to recover compensation for all owners of websites carrying banner advertising. If successful, this would mean a wide and diverse group could get compensation - from major media sites down to small and medium-sized businesses who produce their own online content. Businesses which do not which to be included in the legal action can opt out. [...] The UK competition watchdog is also investigating Google's power in the digital advertising technology market. The Dutch case is open to European publishers affected by Google's actions. Geradin Partners has teamed up with Dutch law firm Stek to bring the collective claim.

In related news ...

[RoccamOccam]

Google stock drops 6% today (along with a host of other stocks) after a worse than expected inflation report. Coincidentally, Biden chose today to celebrate, saying The Inflation Reduction Act "helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table."

Re:

[thegarbz]

Google stock drops 6% today

Yeah, Google's stock hasn't seen such a sharp drop in at least 3 weeks!

Yet more unrelated news: Amazon's new tagline

[Provocateur]

"Hey, at least we're not Google"

Adapt or die

[LostMyBeaver]

This is a terrible example of western decline

If you want to compete, then compete. When I was at Opera, we went to court and testified that Microsoft's Internet Explorer monopoly had no real impact on us. We were too busy coding to notice. We forced the W3C standards to matter. Then came Google who made a browser that took IE's place and the Opera people are still coding away on Vivaldi.

Google built a platform and uses it. There are other platforms. These EU fines are bullshit fundraisers with no real chanc

Commie: definition

[Epeeist]

What are the EU commies going to use then?

Commie: Somebody whose views or actions I do not approve of.

The person claiming somebody or something is "commie" will almost certainly never have read anything by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky...

Re:

[thegarbz]

Not only that, but at some point, Google will say "Fuck It", and exit the EUSSR.

They will not. The EU couldn't possibly levy a fine big enough to let shareholders agree to exiting a wealthy western market twice the size of the USA.

Even with your childish equivalence to the USSR, Google would happily do business with the USSR (unless there are sanctions against them).

Re:

[Computershack]

Not only that, but at some point, Google will say "Fuck It", and exit the EUSSR. What are the EU commies going to use then?

Nice to see the practice of Americans calling everyone who disagrees with them commies is still good and strong.

Re:

[jonwil]

Except that Opera and Vivaldi (and basically everyone who has anything vaguely resembling market share else except Apple and Mozilla) are all based on the Chromium browser engine and Google has more control over the web than Microsoft ever did.

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[dbialac]

Google is up to other trickery. While I was in Spain, I stayed at a number of hotels with wifi, including some global chains. Then I get to one with a partnership with Google and suddenly I'm being asked for my email address and phone number and being told it is to comply with the GDPR. The hotel tried to get me to agree to Google's spyware via a pen and paper signature. Complete BS. I dongled off of my cell phone and am reporting it to the EU. I feel for those who wouldn't know the difference.

Re:

[thegarbz]

we went to court and testified that Microsoft's Internet Explorer monopoly had no real impact on us. We were too busy coding to notice.

Why the fuck would Opera send a code monkey to testify on a business matter? I can only conclude one of two things:
a) Opera didn't have a clue how to run a business or how business worked.
b) They were paid off by MS.
c) You're talking out of your arse.

I'm going with c, given that this is the same Opera which didn't testify that MS had no impact on them, but rather that *they* had no impact on MS and couldn't fund a lawsuit against MS, especially not in the USA since they weren't an American company. This is

Re:

[DarkRookie2]

Vivaldi is not even a footnote in the history of browsers. At least Opera is.

huh?

[usedtobestine]

Are they really asking for their clients to be no longer indexed by google.uk and google.com?

Or they Can donate 30,000k to Liz truss'es party

[Growlley]

and the problem will go away in the Uk!