Woodsford and Piper Alderman have filed a class action lawsuit in the Federal Court alleging that publishers have suffered financial losses as a result of Google abusing its dominant position in the adtech supply chain.
The lawsuit also alleges that Google has been self-preferencing its own ad tech services to the financial detriment of those selling advertising space—i.e. publishers.
Woodsford said that “anyone, or any business” who has owned a website or app and sold advertising space using Google’s adtech tools can join the action as a group member. This includes Google Ad Manager, Doubleclick for Publishers, Google Ad Exchange, Google AdSense or AdMob.
The suit is similar to other actions brought against Google in the US, Canada, the Netherlands and France. Maurice Blackburn launched a similar suit last month.
It added that their participation in the action will be confidential and fully funded by Woodsford.
Woodsford’s chief investment officer, Charlie Morris, commented: “This class action follows numerous other class actions against Google in other jurisdictions regarding its infringement of competition laws in relation to AdTech. This action aims to hold Google to account for its misuse of market power and compensate website and app publishers for the consequences of Google’s misconduct. Working closely with economists, we have determined that Australian website and app publishers have been earning significantly less revenue and profits from advertising than they should have. We aim to right this wrong.”
Greg Whyte, a partner at Piper Alderman, added: “This class action is of major importance to publishers, who have suffered as a result of Google’s practices in the ad tech monopoly that it has secured. As is the case in several other jurisdictions around the world, Google will be required to respond to and defend its monopolistic practices which significantly competition in the Australian publishing market.”
B&T has contacted Google for comment.
