Google is facing a year of challenges to its business model in Australia in the form of two potential class actions over its ad tech practices, plus planned competition regulations expected to impact its advertising and app store services.
Maurice Blackburn’s investigation is focused on publishers that may have suffered financial loss in their ad space sales because of alleged anticompetitive conduct by Google. Phi Finney McDonald (PFM) is also investigating a possible class action, which would include web publishers and advertisers.
But both firms still need to find named claimants for their class action probes, and the government has a long path to turn its legislative plans, which include fines of up to $50 million for Big Tech companies, into regulation — pending the federal election outcome. So there’s a lot still to play out.
Still, it looks like the global crackdown on Google’s ad tech practices is about to land in Australia.
