Google and Small EU Publishers: Who Has the Cash for a Long Litigation?
June 10, 2026
Another dinobaby post. No AI unless it is an image. This dinobaby is not Grandma Moses, just Grandpa Arnold.
I learned from “European Publishers Seek £552m+ from Google Claiming Ad Market Abuse.” I had to read the headline twice to make sure I understood that publishers believe Google abused the ad market. Now the publishers want money.
Thanks, MidJourney. Good enough.
The write up reported:
More than 20 European news publishers are taking legal action against Google seeking damages of £550m for adtech monopoly abuses.
That’s it. Google is a monopoly. The monopoly makes life tough for non monopolies. Google has been running its advertising railroad for a couple of decades. Now European publishers are charging into action.
The case is being funded by Prague-based litigation funder LitFin, which will cover the costs even if it fails. The publishers involved have agreed to share part of any awarded damages with it if they win. LitFin chief operating officer Matej Pardo said: “Google’s abuse of its position across the ad tech stack has been found unlawful at the highest levels – now it’s time for the publishers who bore the cost of that conduct to be made whole.
Speaking practically, if Google litigates this case until the cows come home and then appeals until the cows come home, who has enough money to pay the lawyers to herd the cows? [a] The publishers and LitFin or [b] Google. If you picked [a], you might want to think about how quickly European outfits cash those Google checks. I would convert this to another exam question, but I think you know the answer.
Several observations are warranted:
- Google is the big dog of online advertising. Meta is doing its best to dethrone the money printing machine. Good luck with that, Mr. Zuckerberg. Maybe your AI can pull this off, but not overnight.
- Google has lots of invisible outfits doing SEO and then telling their clients, “Just buy ads to get traffic.” AI will make this more of an imperative. Want eyeballs? Pay Google. DuckDuckGo may kill Google. Yandex may kill Google. Swisscows may kill Google. But for now, Googzilla looks healthy because traffic…
- Google views governments as a bit of proof that some people get it and others don’t. The EU and the small publishers don’t get it. I hope they win, but even a dying Google knows they won’t get it.
Net net: Publishers are taking on an entity that is larger than most of the countries in the EU in terms of money, value, and power. My hunch is that Google leadership will have Gemini output some PR pablum and then let the Google lawyers burn through whatever cash the publishers and the Prague outfit can muster.
Stephen E Arnold, June 10. 2026
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