Google Sued At British Court Rp111.2 Trillion For Allegedly Monopoly Search Ads

JAKARTA - Google, a subsidiary of technology giant Alphabet, is facing a class action lawsuit worth 5 billion in UK. The lawsuit accuses the company of abusing its dominance in the online search market and forcing thousands of businesses to pay more expensive for advertising.

The lawsuit was filed with the Competition Appeal Tribune by competition legal expert Or Brook, representing thousands of British companies. In the lawsuit document, it is stated that Google deliberately takes advantage of its dominant position to increase the ad price that appears in the search results, which should be cheaper if there is healthy competition.

Google is said to have made a deal with mobile phone manufacturers to install Google Search and Chrome browsers by default on Android devices. In addition, Google is also paying Apple to make its search engine the default on iPhone devices. These steps, according to the lawsuit, are designed to get rid of competitors.

In addition, Google is accused of giving special features and performance advantages to ads appearing on its search platform, in order to support their internal advertising ecosystem.

"Google has effectively created a situation where business actors have no choice but to use their advertising services," said Or Brook.

Google Response

In its official statement, a Google spokesperson called this lawsuit a 'speculative and opportunistic case.'

"We will defend ourselves firmly. Consumers and advertisers use Google because it helps, not because there is no alternative," the representative said.

The case comes as British antitrust authority, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is also investigating Google's search services and their impact on the digital advertising market. CMA notes that Google accounts for about 90% of all searches in the UK and is used by more than 200,000 businesses for advertising.

If this lawsuit is successful, it could set a major precedent in regulations against tech giants, and encourage similar investigations in other countries.