Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft: The £30bn legal headache for Big Tech
In recent years, Big Tech giants including Apple and Google, have been targeted by mammoth class action lawsuits in the UK.
There are over 20 class actions now active in the UK against Apple, Google and its parent firm Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta, which owns social media behemoths Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp.
These suits have an estimated total of more than £30bn in alleged damages.
The vast majority of these are competition cases, listed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
New legislation was introduced in 2015 to allow an ‘opt-out’ regime for infringements of competition law in the UK. When this law came into place, and the CAT had the powers, it became one of the busiest Tribunal’s in the country.
Samantha Ward, partner at Clifford Chance stated that “the UK collective proceedings regime continues to shape the landscape of competition law.”
But why Big Tech firms?
Julie Hamilton, partner at law firm MFMac explained that “regulators in the UK and internationally have regularly sought to respond to the unique challenges of our tech-driven economy through competition law means, often with a focus on consumer protection and promoting healthy competition.”
“That has resulted in substantial fines being imposed for infringements of competition law, as well as specialised rules to govern the behaviour of those in digital markets.”
The UK competition watchdog is very active, especially on the tech sector.
On Tuesday, the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) placed Google under investigation to assess whether its search and advertising services deliver fair results within the UK.
The watchdog launched the probe under a new Strategic Market Status regime to assess how Google’s search services impact consumers and businesses across the UK.
“Aside from public enforcement means, we are now seeing the conduct of Big Tech firms being challenged by way of private litigation,” Hamilton added.
Cases against Google
Google and its parent Alphabet faces a class action with one of the highest financial figures.
The tech giant was hit with up to €25bn (£21.6bn) class action in 2022 over allegations that it deprived other sites such as publishers, like newspapers, magazines and blogs from obtaining billions of pounds in advertising revenues.
Speaking at the time, a Google spokesperson said the lawsuit was “speculative and opportunistic”, adding, “when it is received, we’ll fight it vigorously”. Last June, the Tribunal green lit this ‘Ad Tech’ claim to go towards a hearing in due course.
A year later, it was hit with an around £7bn claim accusing Google of shutting out competition in its mobile search, and driving up prices for consumers as a result.
Three separate lawsuits, now merged, were launched over allegations Google was giving its own comparison shopping service an advantage over competitors in search results.
This case known as the Google Shopping Proceedings comes after the European Commission fined the tech giant €2.42bn back in 2017 for abusing its market dominance.
These three claims had a joint case management conference back in November.
Cases against Apple
Just this week, fellow tech giant Apple is the first Big Tech firms to face a class action at a full trial at the Tribunal, as a case over alleged “excessive and unlawful” fees on the App Store kicked off.
Other cases include a consumer rights group Which? £3bn lawsuit for allegation it breached competition law in relation to its iCloud services filed in November.
The giant also failed last April to have a £785m class action lawsuit, over similar allegation that it holds an unfair monopoly, to be thrown out of court.
An Apple spokesperson said that “Apple believes in providing our customers with choices”, underlining that its users “are not required to use iCloud”.
“We reject any suggestion that our iCloud practices are anti-competitive and will vigorously defend any legal claim otherwise”, they said.
Despite that, Apple, along with Amazon, received some good news this week after the Tribunal turned away a £500m claim against the companies. The claim alleged that Apple and Amazon restricted the sale of iPhones and other Apple products on the Amazon Marketplace.
The case went to a short hearing in September, and on Tuesday, the Tribunal handed down a ruling outright refusal to certify the case. According to Brick Court, it is the first judgement to refuse certification on the ground that the class representative is unsuitable.
Commenting on this decision, Seema Kennedy, executive director of Fair Civil Justice (affiliated to US Chamber of Commerce), stated that “this judgment is good news but raises serious questions about the current class action regime and how fit for purpose it is.”
She added “if consumers are to have any confidence in these types of mass actions, it is vital that we have genuinely independent class representatives acting only in their interests and not any third party.”
Other tech cases
While elsewhere in the Big Tech firm space, Microsoft was hit with a £1bn legal action in early December over claims it has overcharged businesses for access to products.
While Meta, the owner of Facebook, is set to face a £2.2bn suit over allegations it abused its dominant market position by imposing unfair terms, after the Tribunal threw out its appeal last year.
And these actions, including data breaches claims, are not slowing down anytime soon
A Northern law firm, Barings Law, has revealed that it now has around 15,000 claimants signed up to take out a data breach lawsuit against Microsoft and Google.
This follows a two-year investigation by the firm, during which it claims to have found evidence that a significant amount of data collected was being used in training and developing language AI models.
Ward stated that “as 2025 unfolds, the CAT will remain a pivotal arena for handling complex competition claims and Big Tech will remain front and centre.”
She explained how “Big Tech delivers innovation to consumers in the context of an ever more demanding and complex regulatory environment will be interesting, as will the interplay between collective actions and the CMA’s new digital and consumer regime.”
“Big Tech will be fighting battles in both the courts and with regulators,” Ward added.
Global crackdown
These class actions come amid a broader global crackdown on Big Tech dominance, with a US court ruling against Google’s monopoly on internet search last year.
The Biden Administration placed antitrust enforcement in the technology sector at the forefront of its priorities.
Biden’s top economic adviser reportedly said, “the President knows that vibrant capitalism depends on strong competition. Competition lowers prices, raises wages and levels the playing field for small businesses”, reported by the New York Times.
Other countries like Japan, South Korea and Australia have also tightened rules to rein in Big tech firms by implementing various landmark legislation to offer more choice to tech consumers, similarly to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.