The Recent lawsuits against Google
As one of the world’s largest and influential companies, Google has built up a record of legal action against them for using their influence and monopoly in the tech industry to remain on the top of the ladder.
Google have been facing multiple lawsuits against them through 2023 and 2024 in which they have denied all claims against them.
Google have been accused of abusing its dominance in the online advertising market and paying large sums to suppress competition.
In 2023 the US government argued that Google was using business dealing to block innovation in the search business. Google CEO, Sundar Pichai defended the business in trial October 2023.
In 2024 came the second major antitrust case which brought up concerns surrounding advertising strategies.
The trial
The 2023 trial is still awaiting a verdict. The 2024 case is set to go to trial in September with Judge Amit Mehta making the call.
The lawsuit is seeking damaged of $16.9 bn on behalf of publishers of websites and apps in the UK who claim they have suffered losses due to Google’s anticompetitive behaviour.
The punishment could be, fines, orders to adjust business practices or even a total ban on contracts which make Google the default search engine.
If Google are found to have committed these allegations then other cases against other large tech companies such as, Amazon and Apple may also be brought up to trial.
Class action from 2020
In 2020 a class action against google began when it was found that those using private browsing were having their data collected. User’s alleged that Google’s Alphabet unit was improperly tracking people who set their browser to ‘incognito.’
The settlement
Google is currently in the process of their disclosures about what it collects in private browsing as well as providing the option for users to block third party cookies for 5 years.