A Paris court has ordered the American technology company Google to pay just over €20 million in damages to the Belgian media group Rossel. Google has announced that it will appeal the ruling, belga news agency reported.
Rossel, publisher of Le Soir and Sudinfo in Belgium and the third-largest regional newspaper publisher in France, brought the case alleging anti-competitive conduct by Google in the digital advertising technology market.
The dispute has unfolded over several years and follows a 2021 decision by the French competition authority, which found that Google had abused its dominant position in the online advertising sector. Rossel argued that Google imposed an unlawful intermediary role between publishers and advertisers, thereby distorting market pricing and capturing a disproportionate share of advertising revenues.
While the court accepted parts of Rossel’s arguments, it rejected several of the group’s claims. Rossel had originally sought €832 million in damages, a figure calculated with assistance from Deloitte and, according to Rossel’s chief executive officer Bernard Marchant, intended to cover losses allegedly incurred between 2014 and 2030.
In response to the ruling, a spokesperson for Google stated that the company “disagrees with the decision in its entirety” and confirmed that it will pursue an appeal. The spokesperson added that the company views such proceedings as “opportunistic lawsuits” founded on what it described as misunderstandings of how the advertising technology sector operates.