Google urges court to reject lawsuit over adtech practices

Google's parent company Alphabet has requested a Virginia federal court to reject a lawsuit accusing it of monopolising adtech. 

In a statement sent to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Oliver Bethell, legal director, Google said the tech giant works constructively with publishers across the UK and Europe.

"Our advertising tools, and those of our many adtech competitors, help millions of websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers. These services adapt and evolve in partnership with those same publishers. This lawsuit is speculative and opportunistic. We’ll oppose it vigorously and on the facts," Bethell added.

The lawsuit has sought damages of up to US$$16.9 billion on behalf of publishers of websites and apps based in the UK, who reportedly said they have suffered losses due to Google's allegedly anticompetitive behaviour, according to Reuters.

According to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT)'s court document, the claims by Ad Tech Collective Action are for loss and damage allegedly caused by Google's breach of statutory duty by their infringement of section 18 of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

The Ad Tech Collective Action seeks to recover damages to compensate UK-domiciled publishers and publisher partners, for alleged harm in the form of lower revenues caused by the Google's conduct in the ad tech sector.

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On the other hand, Google is also facing two lawsuits in the US, which accused the company of anticompetitive conduct.

The company "strongly rejects the underlying allegations against it", its lawyers said in court documents for the CAT case. "Google's impact in the ad tech industry has been hugely procompetitive."

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