Maurice Blackburn investigating Google adtech class action
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Law firm Maurice Blackburn is investigating a potential class action against Google over the tech company's alleged anticompetitive conduct linked to adtech services provided to publishers.
The context: The investigation, led by Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Miranda Nagy, is focussed on advertising auctions, and concerns websites and/or mobile phone apps that were harmed by Google's advertising practices.
If the case proceeds, the class group would include any website owner or app publisher that sold ads via programmatic channels over the last six years.
Maurice Blackburn would pursue retrospective compensation for those who received less revenue for the ad space they sold, than they would have otherwise.
Litigation funder Omni Bridgeway is already backing a similar lawsuit in Canada, with another class action in the UK. In the US, a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice went to trial in September.
Competition regulators in Australia, Canada, French and the UK have looked at Google's adtech practices, with concerns in Australia feeding the competition regulator's calls for new measures directed at the dominance of key digital platforms including Google across a variety of markets.
What they said: "Our case will be focused on recovering compensation for publishers, who we believe were charged too much for Google’s services and received less revenue from their advertising inventory,” Nagy said in a statement to Capital Brief.
The sources: Maurice Blackburn , Mi3
