Google Loses Bid to Block UK Class Action Over Search Ads

Alphabet Inc.’s Google must face a class action lawsuit over alleged abuse of its dominance after an antitrust tribunal allowed a claim on behalf of hundreds of thousands of British firms to go ahead.

The lawsuit alleged that Google overcharged businesses that paid for online advertising and abused its dominance over mobile operating systems, app distribution and search advertising. The Competition Appeal Tribunal on Wednesday rejected Google’s bid to block the claim.

“The proposed collective proceedings meet the eligibility condition,” the judges said in the ruling. Eligible U.K. businesses will automatically be included as part of the claim unless they opt out, the tribunal ruled.

Lawyers for Or Brook, a competition law academic acting as the class representative, estimated about 880,000 firms were covered by the claim, which sought as much as £5 billion ($6.7 billion) in damages.

The ruling allows the case to proceed to a trial later on the merits and does not imply that Google broke any law. Google’s spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Top photo: Signage outside the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, on July 21. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg.