Alphabet Inc's Google's dominance of the digital advertising market continues to be under investigation for alleged violations of anti-competition rules in Europe.
The new update finds that Google will have to pay €25 billion or $25.4 billion in damages after courts in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands, representing ad publishers, found the company at fault.
It is understood that an investigation by the European Commission and a company in the UK found that Google has too much control over advertising technology to the point of giving additional advantages that are seen as unfair to 3rd party publishers.
As a context of understanding, Google is the largest ad technology vendor controlling 90% of the market with online advertising capabilities spanning smart devices to web usage.
And the digital advertising space has become a valuable source of income for publishers including news websites that agree to pay rent for those Google advertising sites.
However, Google's advertising practices are said to have violated anti-competition rules and abused its dominant position when each publisher had to pay a high amount to rent space.
Everything came to light when the French watchdog, which conducted an investigation last year, found Google in violation of anti-competition rules and fined it €220 million.
Returning to the original topic, lawyer Damien Geradin of the Dutch law firm Geradin Partners insists that it is time Google is held accountable for the damage done to the digital advertising industry.
In response, Google said that the charges after the charges were speculative and opportunistic and the company will also demand justice.
As of this writing, Google shares are trading down 5.90% at $104.32.
