Google faces class action antitrust lawsuit from 130,000 UK businesses

In brief

A group of British website publishers have filed a class action lawsuit against Google and its parent company Alphabet alleging anti-competitive practices.

Law firms Humphries Kerstetter and Geradin Partners filed the claim on behalf of 130,000 businesses, arguing that Google “abused its dominant position in the market for online advertising, earning super-profits for itself at the expense of the tens of thousands of publishers of websites and mobile apps in the UK”.

The claim is valued at up to £13.6bn ($16.5bn).

In a statement to Reuters, Google dismissed the lawsuit as “speculative and opportunistic”.