Google has found itself in hot water once again, as another company has filed a lawsuit against its so-called “anti-competitive” behaviour.
French search engine, 1plusV (which owns ejustice.fr), has claimed that Google has prohibited them from using its search engine marketing module ‘AdSense’, in a bid to stifle competition.
In a statement published by BBC News, 1plusV said that AdSense is “the only truly effective way of obtaining targeted advertising on a search engine.”
They claimed that after filing an original complaint, Google went on to remove sites published by 1plusV from its listings in a bid to stifle its growth.
“For ejustice.fr, Google’s decision to remove it from its search results was catastrophic in terms of traffic,” 1plusV said.
In response to previous claims made during the long-standing dispute between the two search engines, Google claimed that 1plusV did not achieve high listing as it was of little value to its users.
The complaint has reached the European Commission, which Google is said to be working closely with.
In a statement published on IT Pro Portal, a Google spokesperson said: “We have been working closely with the European Commission to explain many different parts of our business. While we have always tried to do the right thing for our users and advertisers, we recognise that there’s always room for improvement.”
