‘They felt Google was holding them hostage’: Australian law firms looking at class actions against tech giant
Two local law firms are investigating class actions against Google.
The potential cases – being conducted by Phi Finney McDonald and Maurice Blackburn – are looking at “alleged anti-competitive conduct in relation to digital advertising” by the tech giant and will seek “compensation for advertisers (eg if you purchased a GoogleAd) or publishers (eg if you received revenue from ads on your website) who have suffered loss as a result of Google’s alleged anti-competitive conduct”.
“We believe that the tech giant’s conduct with respect to the AdTech services it operate, and with respect to programmatic advertising auctions, foreclosed rivals and tied businesses to its services in a manner that we are concerned is inconsistent with lawful competition,” Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer, Miranda Nagy, said in a statement given to Mumbrella.
“The US cases against Google concerning Search and Adtech have revealed a trove of internal Google documents that make it very clear that Google has a global system for managing adtech with no meaningful regional differences: it is a company with more power than many nation states, operating in a way that is essentially uniform globally; it has over the years acted to ensure that programmatic auction rules operated to its benefit and we are concerned, to publishers’ detriment.
“Our case will be focused on recovering compensation for publishers, both large and small, who we believe were charged too much for Google’s services and received less revenue from their advertising inventory than they should have.”
The news comes after Google’s case against the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which is suing the company for dominating online searches, while a similar investigation is also underway in Canada.
A verdict on the US case is expected in the coming weeks.
“One of the standouts from the US Department of Justice Adtech trial was how big publishers and small publishers were equally affected and cowed by Google’s conduct,” Nagy continued.
“It was amazing to hear senior people from global news organisations say they felt Google was holding them hostage. That they felt stuck. That they couldn’t stop using the services. A class action is the only way that publishers are likely to receive redress, given that Australian regulator powers don’t extend to ordering break-ups of monopolies.”
Both Phi Finney McDonald and Maurice Blackburn are encouraging those impacted to register their interest for a potential class action.
Mumbrella has contacted Google for comment.
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Neil Griffiths is the Managing Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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