Google is facing a wave of civil lawsuits totaling at least €12 billion. This was reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.
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According to reports, Bloomberg News has identified 12 ongoing civil cases in seven European countries. Although not all courts and parties were willing to state the total amount, the value of nine lawsuits exceeds €12 billion.
The amounts in these lawsuits often exceed the EU's fines for the same activity many times over, said Christian Kersting, professor of law at the University of Düsseldorf. The lawsuits also exacerbate the company's legal woes at a time when the US Department of Justice is trying to force it to separate key parts of its advertising and search business after losses in two antitrust cases.
According to reports, Google denies that any of the European civil lawsuits have any merit. The company itself declined to say how many lawsuits have been filed in connection with the antitrust ruling or what amounts were in dispute.
Many of these cases will soon be heard in court. In late June, a London judge will hear a £1 billion ($1.6 billion) lawsuit from British website Kelkoo and the now-defunct Foundem. In September, a court in Amsterdam will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by Dutch company Compare Group.
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In addition, two hearings are scheduled in Hamburg in October, and judges in Berlin have scheduled two more for November, including a €3.3 billion case brought by Idealo, owned by Axel Springer. Google is also fighting a €2.1 billion lawsuit from Swedish website Pricerunner, now owned by Klarna, and a €500 million lawsuit from Polish website Ceneo.
At the same time, new lawsuits continue to be filed. Last month, a €900 million lawsuit was filed in Amsterdam on behalf of several companies. Last week, Italian Moltiply Group SA announced that it had informed Google of a claim for €2.97 billion in damages allegedly suffered by its Trovaprezzi website between 2010 and 2017.
Subsequently, some plaintiffs have increased their claims and brought in outside litigation funders, arguing that Google continues to violate antitrust laws by manipulating search results and failing to comply with the 2017 EU order. This, they say, has allowed the tech giant to unfairly dominate web traffic and profits.
In turn, Google denies the allegations, saying that the ad display it introduced in 2017 for price comparison sites has worked well. The company does not distinguish between its own shopping service and those of competitors, a spokesman added, noting that more than 1,550 price comparison sites in Europe now use its display - compared to seven in 2017.
We strongly disagree with these lawsuits, which are being filed by companies seeking payouts instead of investing in their own products.
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In addition to the civil lawsuits, the EU has also fined the company around €8 billion since 2017 for antitrust violations, although some of those fines have been overturned. In addition to the €2.4 billion fine for the price comparison ruling, Google was fined €4.34 billion and €1.49 billion for practices related to its Android system and advertising contracts. Google is currently appealing the Android fine, which was reduced by a lower court. The advertising fine has been overturned, although the European Commission can still appeal.
Even with the support of the European Commission's decision, the civil lawsuits currently going through the courts are not guaranteed wins.
Plaintiffs still need to prove that the search giant's actions were responsible for the decline in their profits - an obstacle that law professor Kersting says can be difficult to overcome.
Meanwhile, Google's litigation is not limited to Europe. Last year, Yelp Inc. filed a lawsuit in San Francisco accusing Google of abusing its dominant market position. It argued that the company favored reviews from its own crowdsourced rating system over those of competitors - Google called the claim baseless.
Let us remind you
Earlier, Reuters reported that Google has agreed to pay $1.375 billion in a settlement reached with the state of Texas over allegations of privacy violations.