Dozens of media companies around Axel Springer Verlag have sued Google because of allegedly anti-competitive behavior in online advertising. To compensate for losses incurred, the Internet company should pay 2.3 billion euros, the plaintiffs’ law firms, Geradin Partners and Stek, announced on Wednesday. “Without Google’s abuse of its dominant market position, media companies would have generated significantly higher advertising revenue and paid lower fees for online advertising services. These funds could have been reinvested in strengthening the European media landscape,” they argue.
To support their claims, the 32 plaintiff companies pointed to a 220 million euro fine that France imposed on Google for alleged misconduct in its 2021 online advertising business. The European Union (EU) is also considering forcing Google, a subsidiary of the Alphabet Group, to sell this division.
The company has always denied the allegations. Google made $224.5 billion in revenue from online advertising in 2022. That was almost 80 percent of the entire group’s revenue. According to experts, around 28 percent of all internet advertising spending worldwide ends up in Google’s pockets.