Report from The Media Leader
In Brief – The Paris Commercial Court has ordered Google to pay €16.2 million to French sports newspaper L’Équipe for damages caused by its anti-competitive practices in online advertising. The ruling builds on a 2021 decision by the French Competition Authority that fined Google €220 million for abuse of dominance in online advertising. The case centers on Google’s integration of its publisher ad server (DFP) and AdX exchange, which the court found favored its own ecosystem over rivals and limited the ability of publishers to foster real-time competition among ad buyers that would maximize advertising revenue. Most notably, the Paris court criticized Google’s “right of last look” that allowed AdX to view competing bids and match them at the last moment. In assessing damages to L’Équipe, the court determined that weakened competition and auction advantages directly harmed pricing, accounting for roughly €15.2 million, plus nearly €1 million in excess commissions. However, the award was far smaller than the initial claim of €119.7 million by the plaintiffs, including dismissal of the damages claim of Amaury Medias, the company that owns L’Équipe, for failing to prove it was personally harmed.
Context – As Google loses antitrust decisions, it will face a growing number of “follow-on” civil lawsuits claiming damages. A collection of such lawsuits from online comparison-shopping sites in Europe aim to win damages from Google following the final resolution of the European Commission’s Google Shopping antitrust case. Klarna-owned Pricerunner is alone claiming $8 billion. Local search platform Yelp, a leading US-based corporate critic of Google, has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in US federal court that hopes to build on District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling that Google’s general search service is a monopoly. Canada-based Adtech business Index Exchange has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in US federal court that aims to win damages based on US District Judge Leonie Brinkema’s April 2025 ruling that Google willfully maintained monopoly power in publisher ad server and ad exchange markets.