Britain's Competition and Markets Authority is also investigating Google's alleged dominance in the search engine market, looking at its impact for consumers and businesses
Law firm Geradin Partners said it had filed a £5 billion ($6.6 billion) claim with Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), arguing that Google "abused its dominant position to exclude competitors
Image: Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Google on Wednesday said it would "vigorously" defend itself after some 250,000 UK businesses filed a multi-billion-pound legal claim against the US tech giant for allegedly overcharging for online advertising.
Law firm Geradin Partners said it had filed a £5 billion ($6.6 billion) claim with Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), arguing that Google "abused its dominant position to exclude competitors from the general search and search advertising markets".
Geradin noted that regulators worldwide "have described Google as operating a 'monopoly' and courts in the US and EU have found that Google's conduct broke competition laws".
A Google spokesperson described the CAT filing as "yet another speculative and opportunistic case".
"We will argue against it vigorously. Consumers and advertisers use Google because it helpful, not because there are no alternatives," they added.