A legal claim seeking £13.6bn in damages for UK publishers from Google for allegedly rigging the online advertising market has made a significant step forward.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal has said it is allowing the claim to proceed as a collective action.
The claim is being funded by Fortress Legal Investment on behalf of three representative claimants: tech journalist Charles Arthur, consumer rights lawyer Kate Wellington and former Ofcom director Claudio Pollock. The three claimants have formed a Limited Liability Partnership called Adtech Collective Action.
Bigger publishers could receive windfalls worth hundreds of millions if the claimants successfully argue that Google exploited its monopoly position controlling the technology that underpins online advertising.
If successful, the claimants will be paid a consultancy fee and the damages will be shared among all the UK publishers that have used Google’s advertising technology.
Google adtech claim could go to trial in 2026
Wellington said: “With the collective action now advancing, Google can be held accountable for its actions. We are committed to ensuring that affected publishers and publisher partners have the opportunity to receive fair compensation for the harm we allege they have suffered.”
UK publishers who received ad revenue from online display ads (i.e. ads displayed on a publisher’s website or mobile app alongside content) between 1 January 2014 and 30 November 2022 are automatically included in the claim.
Lawyers Geradin Partners, Hausfield and Co and Humphries Kerstetter are arguing the claim with five barristers instructed between them.
If Google does not opt to settle, the case is expected to go to trial next year.
The £13.6bn damages total is more than seven times the total value of all UK advertising on national and regional newsbrands and with magazines.
In the US, the Department of Justice is suing Google for an alleged “systematic campaign to seize control” of the digital advertising market by buying up tools relied on by publishers and advertisers, violating federal anti-trust laws.
In 2023 the European Commission told Google the company has breached EU anti-trust rules by favouring its own services and thus distorting competition in adtech.
In 2021 France fined Google €220m for abusing its dominant position in display advertising and as a result the tech platform agreed to “make it easier for publishers to make use of data and use our tools with other ad technologies”.
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