French media sue Google for 1 billion euros over advertising

Seven French media groups plan to sue Google seeking more than one billion euros (S$1.4 billion) for alleged anti-competitive practices in online advertising, a report said on Friday (Sep 20).

The professional information service Mind Media said the seven groups, representing a total of 22 companies, had either begun or were about to begin legal action.

The move comes after the French competition watchdog fined Google 220 million euros in June 2021 for favouring its own services in the online advertising sector.

“Google has clearly been found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour. The French competition authority has stated that Google has for years favoured its own solutions to the detriment of those of its competitors,” said Figaro chief executive Marc Feuillee, quoted in the report.

Feuillee said he believed that his group was “a victim of this with the technological system we were using” and was therefore seeking “compensation”.

The plaintiffs are Le Figaro, SIPA/Ouest-France, Prisma Media, Les Echos-Le Parisien, Adevinta/Leboncoin, CMA Media and sports daily L’Equipe.

Initial hearings to set the trial schedule took place in early September at the Paris commercial court, and the proceedings could last two to three years.

Google’s advertising practices are also subject to investigations or proceedings in Britain, the EU and the US.

Early in September, the UK’s competition watchdog concluded in provisional findings that Google used “anti-competitive practices… which it believes could be harming thousands of UK publishers and advertisers”.

Google’s vice-president of global ads Dan Taylor argued that the case “rests on flawed interpretations” of the sector.

Its parent company Alphabet recently reported that revenue from online ad searches climbed to US$48.5 billion in the second quarter of this year. AFP