MORE THAN 30 EUROPEAN MEDIA GROUPS SUE GOOGLE FOR 2.1 BILLION EUROS IN DAMAGES
Taken from El Periódico
More than 30 European media groups, belonging to 17 countries, have initiated this Wednesday, February 28, legal action against Google for “anti-competitive behavior” and are claiming damages of 2.1 billion euros. The lawsuit, filed in the District Court of Amsterdam (Netherlands), questions Google’s actions through the technology used in its search engine to manage advertising.
The lawsuit has been joined, for example, by Prensa Ibérica, publisher of El Periódico, and the Axel Springer group from Germany. Also represented are media from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden, among others.
The “abusive behavior” on the part of Google had already been pointed out and documented by several European authorities, the denouncing media indicated in a note. In 2021, the French Competition Authority considered that the technology company had abused its power in the field of advertising software by favoring its own tools over those of its competitors to their disadvantage. Two years later, in 2023, the European Commission issued a statement of objections regarding this behavior, which was at the center of major legal challenges brought by state attorneys general and the Department of Justice in the United States.
The media attributed economic losses to the technology company due to the company’s anti-competitive behavior. “If, on the other hand, this behavior on the part of the multinational had not occurred, media companies would have received significantly higher advertising revenues and paid lower rates for advertising technology services, the funds from which could have been reinvested in strengthening the European media landscape.”
The lawsuit has been filed in the Amsterdam District Court, which has jurisdiction over antitrust damages claims in Europe. Because this petition is filed jointly, it has not been necessary to file several lawsuits from different European countries, avoiding the risk of inconsistencies and spiraling costs.
The plaintiffs include large media companies in Europe as well as many smaller regional newspapers. The case will be legally defended by the European law firm Geradin Partners, whose founding partner states that they have invested “sufficient time to get to the heart of the irregularities committed by Google in the field of advertising technology”. Moreover, they add, “it is high time that the company is held accountable for its abuses and compensates those affected and the European media.”
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This article was originally published in El Periódico, with whose permission we reproduce it here.
