LONDON — Google is being sued for over £5 billion ($6.6 billion) in potential damages in the U.K. over allegations that the U.S. tech giant abused its “near-total dominance” in the online search market to drive up prices.

A class action lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.K. Competition Appeal Tribunal claims that Google abused its position to restrict competing search engines and, in turn, bolster its dominant position in the market and make itself the only viable destination for online search advertising.

It is being brought by competition law academic Or Brook on behalf of hundreds of thousands of U.K.-based organizations that used Google’s search advertising services from Jan. 1, 2011, up until when the claim was filed. She is being represented by law firm Geradin Partners.

“Today, UK businesses and organisations, big or small, have almost no choice but to use Google ads to advertise their products and services,” Brook said in a statement Tuesday. “Regulators around the world have described Google as a monopoly and securing a spot on Google’s top pages is essential for visibility.

“Google has been leveraging its dominance in the general search and search advertising market to overcharge advertisers,” she added. “This class action is about holding Google accountable for its unlawful practices and seeking compensation on behalf of UK advertisers who have been overcharged.”

Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

A 2020 market study from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) — the U.K.’s competition regulator — found that 90% of all revenue in the search advertising market was earned by Google.

The lawsuit claims that Google has taken a number of steps to restrict competition in search, including entering into deals with smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on Android devices and paying Apple billions to ensure Google is the default search engine on its Safari browser.

It also alleges Google ensures its search management tool Search Ads 360 offers better functionality and more features with its own advertising products than that of competitors.

This week, an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission against Meta officially entered the courtroom in a landmark trial that could ultimately force the social media giant to sell its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms.

In January, the U.K.’s CMA raised concerns over competition issues in the cloud computing market, recommending an investigation into Amazon and Microsoft under a landmark competition law known as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.

That came after a class action lawsuit filed in December 2024 accused Microsoft of unfairly overcharging customers of rival cloud companies. The claimant in the case, competition lawyer Maria Luisa Stasi, is seeking more than £1 billion in compensation for firms affected.

Dutch semiconductor equipment firm ASML on Wednesday missed on net bookings expectations, suggesting a potential slowdown in demand for its critical chipmaking machines.

ASML reported net bookings of 3.94 billion euros ($4.47 billion) for the first three months of 2025, versus a Reuters reported forecast of 4.89 billion euros.

Here’s how ASML did versus LSEG consensus estimates for the first quarter:

• Net sales: 7.74 billion, against 7.8 billion euros expected
• Net profit: 2.36 billion, versus 2.3 billion euros expected

In comments accompanying the results, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that the demand outlook “remains strong” with artificial intelligence staying as a key driver. However, he added that “uncertainty with some of our customers” could take the company into the lower end of its full-year revenue guidance.

ASML is estimating 2025 revenue of between of 30 billion euros to 35 billion euros.

Fouquet said that tariffs are “creating a new uncertainty” both on a macroeconomic level and with respect to “our potential market demands.”

“So this is a dynamic I think we have to watch very carefully,” Fouquet said. “Now this being said, where we are today, we still see basically our revenue range for 2025 being between basically €30 and €35 billion.”

Global chip stocks have been fragile over the last two weeks amid worries about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff plans will affect the semiconductor supply chain.

Last week, the U.S. administration announced smartphones, computers and semiconductors would be temporarily exempted from his so-called “reciprocal” duties on counterparties. But on Sunday, Trump and his top trade officials created confusion with comments that there would be no tariff “exception” for the electronics industry, and that these goods were instead moving to a different “bucket.”

On Tuesday, a federal government notice announced that the U.S. Commerce Department was conducting a national security investigation into imports of semiconductor technology and related downstream products. The probe will examine whether additional trade measures, including tariffs, are “necessary to protect national security.”

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) on Tuesday issued a cease and desist order against Google for unfair trade practices regarding search services on Android devices— a move that aligns with similar crackdowns on firms in the UK and the U.S. 

In a statement, the Commission said the American tech giant violated Japan’s anti-monopoly law by requiring Android device manufacturers to prioritize its own search apps and services through licensing agreements. 

While Google develops the Android operating system, separate manufacturing companies like Samsung and Lenovo produce handheld Android products, such as smartphones and tablets. Thus, licensing agreements are necessary to grant these manufacturers permission to preinstall Google apps, including its Play Store, onto devices.

However, JFTC said Google also used licenses to require manufacturers to preinstall and prominently feature Google Search and Chrome on devices, with at least six such agreements in effect with Android makers as of December 2024. 

The Commission added that the company required manufacturers to exclude rival search services as a condition of its advertising revenue-sharing model. 

Under Japan’s anti-monopoly law, businesses are prohibited from carrying out trade on restrictive terms that unjustly impede transaction partners’ business activities. 

JFTC first published the commencement of its probe into Google on October 23, 2023, and in April 2024, it approved a commitment plan from Google that addressed some of its anti-competitive concerns. 

The cease and desist order demonstrates a harder stance taken by the Japanese government as well as its first such action against a U.S. tech giant. 

The move also comes amid a trend of anti-competitive actions against Google globally. According to JFTC, it coordinated its probe with other overseas competition watchdogs that had experience investigating Google.

In a landmark case last year, a federal U.S. judge ruled that Google held an illegal monopoly in the search market, saying that its exclusive search arrangements on Android and Apple’s iPhone had helped to cement its dominance in the space.

Meanwhile, Britain’s competition watchdog opened an investigation into Google’s search services in January following the country’s implementation of new competition rules.

JFTC’s cease and desist orders that Google stop mandating that its own services be installed and featured prominently on smartphones. 

Additionally, the company should relax its restrictive conditions for the distribution of advertising revenue, allowing manufacturers to choose from a variety of options.

Google has also been asked to appoint an independent third party that will report to the JFTC on its compliance with the cease and desist order over the next five years.