“ 1PlusV, the French Web publisher company, on Tuesday, filed a lawsuit against Google in the Paris Commercial Court, seeking EURO 295 million ($ 425 million ) in damages and claiming that Google gives preference to its own sites in search query results, thereby, preventing rivals from winning advertising revenue,” says a Telecompaper post.
1plusV told Bloomberg that it also wants the court to order Google to post details of this alleged anticompetitive behaviour on its French home page for three months. It alleges that Google acted unethically for four years crippling its (1plusV) ability to generate business and advertising. The company described Google’s actions as a ‘suffocation of technological competitors.’
Google has recently confirmed U.S. regulators are taking a close look at its business practices and the probe is designed to confirm or rule out anti-trust concerns.
The company also faces an antitrust investigation by the European Commission and the action was initiated from a complaint filed by Microsoft. More than one U.S. state has also launched its own look at how Google controls the search space.
Complaints by 1plusV, which runs the specialist website eJustice.fr, and others last year prompted the European Union to open an anti-trust probe against Google in November.
1 plus V President and Founder Bruno Guillard said in a statement that “the lawsuit filed at the Paris Commercial Court is a logical next step.”
1plusV accused Google of “choking” the development of its rivals by “unfair competition in the listing of Internet sites” in its web search results, and forcing the use of Google search technology to participate in its online advertising market.
1plusV said 30 of its web search engines had been delisted by Google between 2007 and 2010, which resulted in considerable damage to the company.
“If competition had been able to function normally, the 30 search engines would generate today more than 30 million euros in sales per year” the company said.
The suit is expected to take 16 to 24 months to resolve. The US Search giant’s Brussels office told Bloomberg, “ We have only just received the complaint so we can’t comment in detail yet. We always try to do what’s best for our users. It’s the key principle that drives our company and we look forward to explaining this.”