English users sued Google for $8.7bn
Google Corporation representative said that the company was sued by UK consumers for $8.7bn due to its dominance in the Internet advertising market, TASS reports with reference to The Daily Mail
According to the document submitted to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the company is charged with violating the competition law due to its superiority in the market of search engines, which causes price to rise and makes users to pay more for services and goods.
“Despite judgments at the highest levels in Europe and complaints in the US, Google continues to rig the search market so that it can charge advertisers more. It is a clear breach of competition law, for which consumers are paying the price,” Nikki Stopford, the co-founder of Consumer Voice and leader of the claim, said.
She considers the purpose of the lawsuit to hold Google accountable for multiple violations of the law, and also asks for the money to be returned to users.
Earlier, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) expressed concern about the corporation's primacy in the mobile search advertising space. It believes that Google committed certain actions that helped it achieve leadership, so it continues to investigate possible anti-competitive actions of the corporation in its field. According to CMA figures, Google is set as the default search engine on 94 percent of the mobile device sector.
Google representative, in turn, noted that they ‘will strongly oppose the lawsuit’, and they consider the latter ‘speculative and adventurous’. "Consumers use Google because it is convenient," he commented.
