Google Urges London Tribunal To Dismiss Mass Lawsuit

Alphabet’s Google has sought to dismiss a mass lawsuit in London, that is seeking billion of pounds from the search engine giant.

Reuters reported that Alphabet on Wednesday had asked a London tribunal to throw out a mass lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of abusing its dominance in the online search market.

It was this time last year, when Nikki Stopford, co-founder of Consumer Voice, a consumer rights campaigner, had filed a new multibillion-pound lawsuit on behalf of all UK consumers against Alphabet Google with the Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging its search engine domination came at the expense of consumers.

Search and cost of living

The class action lawsuit is seeking estimated compensation up to £7bn ($9.3bn) and is being funded by Hereford Litigation, a global commercial litigation funder.

Essentially the lawsuit alleges that Google closes out competition in mobile searches, and uses its market dominance to raise the prices paid by advertisers for their spot on the Google search page.

These price rises are then allegedly passed on to consumers.

Reuters noted that part of the lawsuit relies on the more than €4bn ($4.5bn) fine levied on Google by the European Commission in 2018 for imposing restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices. Google is currently appealing that decision.

According to Reuters, Stopford’s lawyers also argue Google reached an anticompetitive deal with Apple to make it the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser in exchange for a share of Google’s mobile search ad revenues.

The lawyers reportedly asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify the case to proceed towards a trial, a very early step in any mass lawsuit.

Google, however, reportedly said the case is seriously flawed.

“The suggestion that consumers have been harmed by the Google conducts at issue is strongly rejected,” Google’s lawyer Meredith Pickford said in court documents.

Google’s Pickford added that the European Commission’s findings were simply “technical complaints about the particular form by which Google promoted its products.”

He also said that Google’s default search engine agreement with Apple was “in principle perfectly lawful”.

Other lawsuits

Alphabet is also facing other lawsuits filed at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in recent years, including a $17 billion case against Google for allegedly abusing its dominance in the online advertising market.

The CAT had in October 2023 had consolidated the £3.4 billion case of former Guardian technology editor Charles Arthur, and the £13.6 billion case of former Ofcom director Claudio Pollack – both of whom alleged Google’s dominance of the adtech industry had illegally reduced publishers’ income from ad revenues.

Elsewhere Alphabet is facing a number of other legal challenges over its online advertising position, with the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission also investigating it over the same matter.

Another lawsuit was filed in February 2024 by European media firms Axel Springer, Schibsted and 30 others.

Last year the largest US newspaper publisher Gannett filed a lawsuit against Alphabet and alleged “monopolisation of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices.”

In January 2023 US Justice Department (DoJ) “along with the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Virginia, filed a civil antitrust suit against Google for monopolising multiple digital advertising technology products in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.”

In April 2024 Google had asked a Virginia federal court to reject that lawsuit over alleged anticompetitive conduct in the advertising technology business.