Google Faces Claim From British Website Publishers Google has reportedly dismissed the lawsuit in an emailed statement
By Teena Jose
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Google was sued on Wednesday by a group of British website publishers who alleged the US company and its parent Alphabet abused their online advertising, depriving them of revenue, according to a report by Reuters.
"The class action claim was filed at the Competition Appeal tribunal on behalf of 130,000 businesses publishing around 1.75 million websites and apps in Britain," law firms Humphries Kerstetter and Geradin Partners said in a statement.
Google has reportedly dismissed the lawsuit in an emailed statement.
"Google works constructively with publishers across 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," stated the report quoting a spokesperson for the company.
Toby Starr, a partner at Humphries Kerstetter which is leading the claim, said in a statement, according to the report that multiple investigations into Google's advertising practices were under way.
"However, none of these regulatory actions will do anything to compensate the UK publishers of thousands of websites and mobile apps who have lost billions in advertising revenue because of Google's actions. The only way to recoup these losses is through a competition class action," the statement added.
