Google ordered to pay 76m euros to Belgian start-up in advertising dispute
Google has been ordered to pay a penalty of 76 million euros to Belgian start-up Proxistore following a legal battle over blocked advertising campaigns, Le Soir reports.
Proxistore, based in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Wallonia, specialises in online advertising and developed a geolocation-based system in 2011. This technology allows companies to display highly localised adverts on international websites. To protect its innovation, Proxistore secured a Belgian patent in 2016 and a European patent in 2017.
On 1 and 12 February, Google blocked several of the company’s advertising campaigns for a total of 76 hours. In response, Proxistore took the tech giant to court, demanding that its services be reinstated and seeking 1 million euros in penalties for each hour the ads were blocked - amounting to a total claim of 76 million euros.
The court ruled in favour of Proxistore, as it had done in a previous case in early February. As a result, a judge at the Walloon Brabant commercial court ordered the seizure of the disputed amount from Google’s Irish bank account.
A letter from the court instructed that the funds be frozen in the Citibank account of Google Ireland Limited, the company’s European headquarters in Dublin. If Google fails to pay or appeal the ruling, the 76 million euros will be transferred to Proxistore within 14 days.
The Google logo in Mountain View, California © AFP PHOTO / SUSANA BATES SUSANA BATES / AFP
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