• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, April 16, 2025

The lack of an alleged competitive search market in Britain has prompted a class action suit filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal Tuesday. It argues that without competition Google could charge higher prices for advertisements that appear in search queries.

The claim filed by Or Brook, represented by law firm Geradin Partners, argues Google abused its dominant position in search and search advertising to exclude competitors and let it charge higher prices for search ads.

The filing was based on damages on behalf of UK search advertisers.

“We are fully committed to holding Google accountable and securing fair compensation for affected organisations and businesses,” founding partner of Geradin Partners Damien Geradin wrote in the suite.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters this was “yet another speculative and opportunistic case,” and it will “argue against it vigorously.”

The lawsuit spans from January 2011 to the present, and $6.6 billion (£5 billion) is the potential damages Google faces. Google has the largest UK market share among search engines with 86.31%. 

The allegations -- which are very similar to what has been said in a U.S. court filing -- say Google restricts competing search engines, forces businesses to use its ad services at inflated prices after creating a monopolistic position, and secured preferential placement through deals with device makers.

This case represents one of the largest competition claims brought against Google in Europe, according to the post, and could affect hundreds of thousands of UK businesses that have used Google’s search advertising since 2011.