Ad-tech start-up Unlockd has been granted an interim injunction from the UK High Court to prevent Google from disabling AdMob-generated advertising content and removing Unlockd apps from the Google Play Store in respect of its UK business.
The court has also accepted the need for an expedited trial date, to be handed down on Monday in a follow-up hearing, with an anticipated date of either end of July or September.
Unlockd announced last month that the company has been forced to postpone its listing on the ASX in order until the matter has been resolved.
The company said in a statement that despite this positive ruling, the limited scope of the interim injunction is “disappointing”.
“We will continue to explore our legal options to protect our interests fully, both in the UK and globally,” it said.
“However, we would not expect Google to take unilateral action against our other businesses in Australia and the United States in circumstances where the court has made a clear order in the UK preventing such action.
Unlockd said the court’s decision to grant an interim injunction and order an expedited trial date validates its strong stand to protect the business, its partners and 330,000 active users to whom this threat could cause “irreparable harm and disruption”.
“Unlockd has created a revolutionary platform that is fundamentally changing the way that people interact with the world of advertising by returning value to users in exchange for their attention in a way that Google and the other big tech companies do not,” the company said.
“We are confident that we will demonstrate at trial that our case represents a further example of anti-competitive conduct on the part of Google toward innovative start-ups such as ourselves that might pose a future threat to their dominance in the market.”
