A consortium of 84 newspapers in 13 states has joined with 3 of the top 10 antitrust law firms to file a class action lawsuit against Google. The complaint is in the DC federal court before Judge Amit Mehta, the same judge who found Google to be an illegal monopoly.
The consortium is encouraging all newspapers and media companies to join now. "The more plaintiffs we have, the more clout we have. There's power in numbers," Wyatt Emmerich, president of Emmerich Newspapers, said. "Joining is a no brainer. And you want to join now, before class certification, in case there is a pre-certification settlement."
Google has filed a motion to dismiss the class action and the consortium has filed a response. Now Mehta must rule on the motion to dismiss, presumably after he finishes breakup remedies for Google which are soon to be ruled on. If the class action survives the motion to dismiss, the next big hurdle is class certification. Google "Judge Mehta Google antitrust" and you will find numerous articles on the government lawsuit, which precedes the consortium's private class action lawsuit for damages and remedies.
Emmerich Newspapers in Mississippi and the Helena World weekly newspaper in Arkansas are the representative plaintiffs. If the class action is certified, the representative plaintiffs will represent every news gathering organization in the country.
"Google has been declared an illegal monopoly in both search and digital advertising before two different judges hearing federal cases filed by the U. S. Department of Justice antitrust division. Our damages, which are tripled if we win, are the loss of the value of our media companies caused by Google's illegal activities. The damages are immense, perhaps in the hundreds of billions in damages, if we achieve class certification," Emmerich said, adding, "We also intend to seek royalty payments going forward. This could transform and recapitalize the news industry in the United States."
Emmerich added, "Some companies are delaying joining our class action until it gets certified, but this is bad thinking. Half class actions are settled prior to certification and media companies need to join now if they wish to be part of a pre-class certification settlement. Given the immense damages and risk of a class action lawsuit, it is logical that Google would settle before risking certification."
The lawsuit is based on the historical "tying" relationship between Google and newspapers. In the past, it was mutually beneficial. Newspapers let Google scrape and index their content. In return, Google brought newspaper readers through search links. But now, Google "A.I. Summaries" are no longer bringing readers to news websites. The A. I. Summaries rewrite the original content and present it as Google's own, dramatically reducing website traffic to publishers. Readers are reading the A. I. Summaries rather than clicking a link to the news websites. "It is illegal to abuse a tying relationship if you are an illegal monopoly," Emmerich said.
Email Wyatt Emmerich at wyatt@northsidesun.com if you wish to join the class action. "There is no legal cost unless we win. Joining is a simple process involving a two page agreement. I will send you a link to the full complaint and other relevant information that you can review," Emmerich said. "This is a huge opportunity to save local news in our country but we must join together to achieve victory."
