YouTube rival Rumble sues “evil” Google for $1 billion in damages
Rumble / Unsplash: Alex DudarYouTube rival Rumble has filed a lawsuit against Google and its parent Alphabet, asking for $1 billion in damages from the “evil” company.
According to an exclusive report from Axios, the publicly traded and user-generated video platform Rumble has claimed that Google owes upwards of $1 billion in damages for lost ad revenue.
The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of California and is the second time Rumble has sued Google, the first being in 2021 after the YouTube rival alleged “self-preferencing.”
This time around, Rumble is claiming Google prevented the video-sharing platform from succeeding as an ad tech competitor by “engaging in conduct unlawful under settled antitrust precedent”, resulting in billions of lost revenue. The complaint goes on to state Google “unlawfully forecloses competition.”
“Google exploits significant conflicts of interest that stem from its multiple roles in this electronically traded marketplace,” the complaint read.
“As a result, it is able to pocket a supra-competitive portion of every advertising dollar that passes through the Ad Tech markets it controls, ad revenue that rightly should have passed through to publishers like Rumble and its content creators.”
As of writing, Google has not provided any comment, though it has motioned to dismiss the case. A judge decided against the motion.
Rumble’s CEO Chris Pavlovski shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the company had “opened a second front” with Google.
“Against evil, we go on offense,” Pavlovski wrote. Other users offered their support for the platform’s lawsuit, with one writing, “Great to see companies boldly standing their ground against Google.”
“Yeah. Not once have I seen a Rumble video in Google search results,” a second person admitted, before requesting Pavlovski “make a functional search engine.”
Rumble’s yearly revenue was $81 million in 2023, of which the vast majority came from selling ads against user-generated content on its platform. The trial for Rumble’s lawsuit is scheduled for next April in Oakland, California.