A UK lawsuit is accusing Google of having a search monopoly

A lot is going on in the tech world right now. Many market observers have accused brands like Apple and Google of having monopolies in different segments. For example, Google is currently facing a legal battle with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over allegations of monopolistic conduct in the world of online advertising technology. Google will now face a class action lawsuit in the UK for monopoly over search.

Google is facing a nearly $8.8 billion lawsuit in the UK that accuses it of harming users by abusing its search dominance. Last Friday, the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal aka CAT ruled that the brand’s case can move forward.

Google will face massive penalties in its UK class action suit over search dominance

The Competition Appeal Tribunal in the UK has given unanimous approval to proceed to trial for the case against Google. The case alleges the company for having a monopoly in the search section. The CAT has certified the £7 billion claim against the search giant brought by Nikki Stopford. For those unaware, Stopford is a consumer rights campaigner who filed the case on behalf of millions of consumers in the UK.

The claim accused the company of exploiting its dominance in the search market. This increased advertising costs, which ultimately impacted its customers. Stopford originally filed this case in September 2023. It also accused Google’s anticompetitive practices of making it more expensive for companies to promote their products on the popular platform.

“Google continues to rig the search-engine market to charge advertisers more, which raises the prices they charge consumers,” Stopford said in a statement. “This UK legal action seeks to promote healthier competition in digital markets, and to hold Google accountable.”

What did the lawsuit argue?

The lawsuit argues that Google forced Android phone OEMs to ship their devices with Google Search and Google Chrome. The lawsuit also mentions that Google paid Apple billions to make Google the default search engine on Safari.

“We still believe this case is speculative and opportunistic — we will argue against it vigorously,” Paul Colpitts, Google UK’s senior counsel, said in an emailed statement to The Verge. “People use Google because it is helpful; not because there are no alternatives.”

Notably, the European Union had already accused the search giant of similar practices in the past few years. The EU ordered the company to pay a hefty fine in 2017. Google lost the fight against the massive $2.7 billion EU antitrust fine in September this year.