Google is facing a new class action lawsuit in the UK that accuses the search giant of abusing its market power and driving up search ad prices.
By the numbers:
The details. Competition law academic Or Brook filed the lawsuit today in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging Google has:
Why we care. This case represents one of the largest competition claims brought against Google in Europe and could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of UK businesses that have used Google’s search advertising since 2011. This lawsuit could potentially lower Google’s artificially inflated search advertising prices if successful, affecting marketing budgets and ROI calculations.
The case highlights how Google’s alleged anticompetitive practices have created a situation where businesses have “almost no choice” but to advertise on its platform despite potentially paying higher rates than would exist in a truly competitive market.
What they’re saying. “UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services,” Brook said in a statement.
Google dismissed the case as “speculative and opportunistic” and plans to “argue against it vigorously,” adding that “consumers and advertisers use Google because it’s helpful, not because there are no alternatives.”
Dig deeper. How Google harms search advertisers in 20 slides
New on Search Engine Land
About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.
Google is facing a new class action lawsuit in the UK that accuses the search giant of abusing its market power and driving up search ad prices.
By the numbers:
The details. Competition law academic Or Brook filed the lawsuit today in the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal, alleging Google has:
Why we care. This case represents one of the largest competition claims brought against Google in Europe and could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of UK businesses that have used Google’s search advertising since 2011. This lawsuit could potentially lower Google’s artificially inflated search advertising prices if successful, affecting marketing budgets and ROI calculations.
The case highlights how Google’s alleged anticompetitive practices have created a situation where businesses have “almost no choice” but to advertise on its platform despite potentially paying higher rates than would exist in a truly competitive market.
What they’re saying. “UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services,” Brook said in a statement.
Google dismissed the case as “speculative and opportunistic” and plans to “argue against it vigorously,” adding that “consumers and advertisers use Google because it’s helpful, not because there are no alternatives.”
Dig deeper. How Google harms search advertisers in 20 slides
New on Search Engine Land
About the author
Anu Adegbola has been Paid Media Editor of Search Engine Land since 2024. She covers paid search, paid social, retail media, video and more.
In 2008, Anu’s career started with
delivering digital marketing campaigns (mostly but not exclusively Paid Search) by building strategies, maximising ROI, automating repetitive processes and bringing efficiency from every part of marketing departments through inspiring leadership both on agency, client and marketing tech side.
She is also an international speaker with some of the stages she has presented on being SMX (US), SMX (Munich), Friends of Search (Amsterdam), brightonSEO, The Marketing Meetup, HeroConf (PPC Hero), SearchLove, BiddableWorld, SESLondon, PPC Chat Live, AdWorld Experience (Bologna) and more.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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