Humphries Kerstetter and Geradin Partners have teamed up to prepare and pursue a case against Google in respect of its conduct in ad tech.
This claim will represent a class of victims including news websites up and down the country with large daily readerships as well as the thousands of small business owners who depend on advertising revenue from their websites and mobile apps. The UK claim will focus on recovering compensation for lost revenue from the sale of advertising space on the websites and mobile apps of all class members.
In 2021, the French Competition Authority imposed a fine of €220m on Google in relation to its conduct in ad tech. Ad tech is the short name for the technologies powering the online adverts billions of consumers see in their everyday lives when surfing the web and using their smartphones. Selling digital advertising is a key source of revenue for publishers of online content. Since then, the European Commission and UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) have both announced they are investigating Google’s conduct in ad tech. In the US, the Texas State Attorney General and 16 other states have filed complaints.
According to the French decision, Google’s conduct inflicted considerable harm on online publishers (ie all websites on which certain advertising space is sold), in that it depressed their revenue, among others by (i) depriving them of the ability to benefit from undistorted competition between ad exchanges, which could have exerted pressure on Google to lower its very high AdX fees (around 20%), and by (ii) diverting impressions from rival ad exchanges charging a lower revenue share.
It is impossible in practice to bring an opt-out claim in the UK without litigation funding. Harbour has experience of UK opt-out cases at the Competition Appeal Tribunal and has provided funding for this case. This will enable a wide and diverse class of business victims to recover compensation in circumstances where they would otherwise stand no realistic chance of doing so.
There is no need to “opt in” as permission will be sought to bring this case on an “opt-out” basis. By doing nothing, each class member will remain a member of the class and may await a determination of their rights over the course of the proceedings. Class members are entitled to opt out. Full details are provided on our claims website which can be accessed here.
Should you wish to find out further information in respect of this class action against Google, please go to our claims website which sets out additional details and where you can also confidentially register your interest to be kept updated as the case develops. The link to the claim website can be found here.