A new court decision illustrates the tensions between media groups and advertising giants. As reported by AFP, the Paris Commercial Court recently ruled in a dispute between the M6 group and Google in the online advertising market. The American giant was ordered to pay nearly €23 million in damages, a decision that Google is already contesting. millions of euros in damages to the M6 group, plus €230,000 in legal fees. The court ruled that Google favored its own platform, Google Ads, when allocating advertising space, to the detriment of competing platforms. According to the judgment, these practices disadvantaged third-party players in this market, constituting a distortion of competition. Google quickly reacted to the decision by announcing its intention to appeal. In a statement to AFP, a company spokesperson said that the group "profoundly disagrees" with a judgment deemed "disproportionate." The company believes the prosecution is based on a misinterpretation of a sector it describes as highly competitive and constantly evolving. A decision supported by several previous sanctions. To reach its decision, the court relied on several precedents already established against Google in the field of online advertising, including a €220 million fine imposed in 2021 by the Competition Authority, which had already accused the group of favoring its own advertising technologies. A recent European decision, which fined Google €2.95 billion, also influenced the court's analysis. According to
Mind Media, this European decision made it possible to extend the period of infringement considered in the case. While the Competition Authority had stopped the disputed period in 2020, the court considered that
these practices continued until 2022, which automatically increased the amount of compensation.
This regulation of tech giants has also sparked political reactions, particularly in the United States where Donald Trump criticized the European decision, against a backdrop of tensions surrounding the rules imposed on large American companies.
Google under pressure in the advertising market…
This case is part of a broader context of challenges to Google's practices in the digital advertising market.
In the United States, the Department of Justice is also pursuing the group on suspicion of monopoly in this strategic sector. US authorities accuse the company of controlling several links in the digital advertising chain. In France, too, the legal action initiated by M6 is not isolated, and several media groups have launched similar lawsuits, believing they have been disadvantaged by Google's advertising technologies…
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