In cooperation with one of the leading law firms for competition law in digital markets and litigation, Hausfeld Rechtsanwälte LLP, adClaim assists online publishers and marketers for programmatic online advertising in pursuing their claims against Google. Any company that generated revenue from the sale of online advertising space on websites or apps by using advertising intermediaries between 2014 and September 2020 may have suffered damages.
Several competition authorities around the world are currently conducting investigations into Google's practices in online advertising markets and ad intermediation. In June 2021, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) found that Google abused its dominance in European markets for online advertising intermediation services. The FCA found strong indications suggesting that online publishers may have suffered significant damages as a result of these anti-competitive practices, for which Google is liable.
We offer to assess potential damage claims without any obligation and to enforce them without any cost risk.
On June 7, 2021, the French Competition Authority imposed a fine of EUR 220 million on Google. The FCA noted that Google had abused its dominant position in the online advertising market throughout the European Economic Area (EEA) by reciprocally applying more favorable conditions to its own display advertising intermediation services, DFP and AdX (now both available as “Google Ad Manager”) as compared to competing services, thereby distorting competition in its favor. The FCA found strong indications suggesting that online publishers may have suffered significant damages as a result of these anti-competitive practices. Publishers may claim these damages in a German civil court.
As a legal service provider and litigation funder, we support affected publishers in pursuing their damage claims against Google. As a team, we work closely with renowned experts to ensure an effective enforcement of your claims. If we cannot reach an out-of-court settlement with Google, Hausfeld’s lawyers will prepare a "class action" for European online publishers by way of an assignment model which has recently been declared permissible by the German Federal Court of Justice. Publishers that have suffered damages may pursue their claims against Google in German civil courts without any cost risk. The joint enforcement of bundled claims offers numerous advantages for your company, e.g., providing a broader data basis for calculating damages and, in the event that Google is willing to settle, a stronger negotiating position. We will act as the claimant, bearing all costs incurred. Only in the event of success, we would receive a share of the recovered amount which has been agreed upon in advance. If the enforcement is unsuccessful, we alone will bear all costs.
Highly specialized team of Hausfeld Rechtsanwälte LLP, led by Prof Dr Thomas Höppner and Dr Ann-Christin Richter
Combined expertise of economics and ad tech stack by Prof Dr Roman Inderst with his team at RCS GmbH and Prof Dr Bernd Skiera
Long-standing experience in gathering and processing of data of thousands of companies from all over Europe
Bearing the cost risk by adClaim and fair commission levels
adClaim will appear as the sole claimant against Google
Google's DoubleClick for Publishers ad server ("DFP") granted Google's own bidding platform AdX more favorable terms and conditions as compared to competing platforms (supply side platforms or "SSP"), e.g., in that in certain periods of time
Reciprocally, AdX favored Google's own DFP ad server by means of a preferential interoperability, e.g., in that