Lawsuits are being prepared against Google in the European Union and Great Britain for a total of 25 billion euros, alleging unfair competition in the digital advertising market.
This is reported by The Guardian.
The company, which is a key player in the online advertising market, is accused of abusing the advertising technology market related to coordinating the sale of advertising space online.
As explained by Damien Geradin of the Belgian law firm Geradin Partners, which is involved in the preparation of the lawsuit in the EU, due to Google's anti-competitive behavior, "local and national media, which play a vital role in our society, have suffered losses for a long time."
Humphries Kerstetter law firm plans to file a similar claim in Great Britain to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in October. It says Google's anti-competitive behavior has cost information sites and small businesses around seven billion pounds over the years.
In the UK, all injured parties will automatically be plaintiffs, while in an EU action brought in the Netherlands, potential claimants must apply themselves to join the action.
When asked for comment, Google would only say that its tools help websites find potential audiences, and in the UK alone it has brought in an estimated £55bn extra to 700,000 businesses.
As reported, the Irish data protection commission fined Instagram a record 405 million euros for violating the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union.