Advertising, who are the (non-Italian) publishers rebelling against Google
Over 30 publishers from 17 European countries have joined together to sue Google. They are asking for 2.1 billion euros for a dominant position in the online advertising market. All the details
Google's alleged unfair practices not only give a hard time to its competitors ( see Microsoft ), but also to publishers. In fact, just yesterday a coalition of 32 groups in the media sector, including Axel Springer , involved the Mountain View giant in a 2.1 billion euro lawsuit with the accusation of having suffered losses due to its behavior in the market of digital advertising.
Following the news, the company's shares fell more than 2% yesterday.
THE PUBLISHERS WHO DECLARE WAR ON GOOGLE
A group made up of publishers from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden accused Google of unfair practices in the online advertising sector. Among them, there are the Austrian Krone, the Belgian groups DPG Media and Mediahuis, the Danish TV2 Danmark A/S, the Finnish Sanoma, the Polish Agora, the Spanish Prensa Iberica and the Swiss Ringier.
The group said it filed the lawsuit in a Dutch court “due to the country's reputation as a key jurisdiction for antitrust damages claims in Europe and to avoid multiple claims in several European countries.”
THE ACCUSATION AND COMPENSATION
“The affected media companies have suffered losses due to a less competitive market, which is the direct result of Google's misconduct,” the law firms defending the coalition said.
The move is the culmination of an intolerance on the part of publishers that has been going on for some time now. In fact, they have seen their revenues decrease for years due to the growing dominance of Big Tech in the advertising market. And Google, in this field, dominates everyone.
“Without Google's abuse of its dominant position – the lawyers continue – media companies would have received significantly higher advertising revenues and would have paid lower rates for ad tech services”.
The publishers are asking for compensation of 2.1 billion euros.
THE PRECEDENT IN FRANCE
Among the legal bases cited by the lawsuit, the Wall Street Journal recalls , there is the fine of around 270 million dollars that was issued in 2021 by the French antitrust authority against Google, precisely for the way in which it manages the online advertising platform . The lawsuit also recalls that last year the European Commission launched investigations and brought charges against the company for its dominant position in the sector.
“Our first concern is that Google may have used its market position to favor its own intermediation services,” declared at the time the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, who added: “This could harm not only Google's competitors but also the interests of publishers, while increasing costs for advertisers."
Google, which has said it disagrees with the EU antitrust charges, said the latest lawsuit is "speculative and opportunistic."
WHAT A TIME IT IS FOR GOOGLE AND PUBLISHERS
The legal action is caught between two fires. On the one hand there are publishers who are struggling to move forward due to a decline in subscription sales, a decrease in related advertising revenues and the advent of artificial intelligence . On the other hand, according to Gil Luria , an analyst at DA Davidson & Co., for Google it comes at a time when the company's core advertising business "is facing an existential threat in the shift to generative artificial intelligence chatbots."
For the analyst, “if regulatory scrutiny continues, Google may have to reduce its practices and provide more consistent and predictable pricing to its advertising clients.” However, barring new negotiations between the parties to try to resolve the dispute privately, the process promises to be long.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/pubblicita-chi-sono-gli-editori-non-italiani-che-si-ribellano-a-google/ on Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:56:16 +0000.