Proxistore Has Smelled Blood in Its Legal Quest Against Google. The Belgian Company Opens New Complaints and Turns to the European Commission.
The Walloon startup Proxistore is embroiled in a legal battle with Google. On Monday, the business court of Walloon Brabant, where Proxistore is based, ruled that Google owes the company 76 million euros because Google had blocked advertising campaigns. The court ordered a seizure of that amount from Google’s Irish bank account.
However, it threatens to be an ongoing struggle for Proxistore to have that amount transferred to its own account. Proxistore reports via press agency Belga that the Irish Ministry of Justice is not complying with this demand. Through the European Commission, Proxistore is now trying to obtain the owed amount. Bruno Van Boucq, the CEO of Proxistore, tells Belga that it is ‘unusual for a European country to ignore a Belgian judicial decision in this way’.
The Irish government is known for its lax attitude towards the big tech giants. Google is not the only Big Tech company that has its European headquarters in Dublin. This is not uninteresting for the Irish economy and gives Ireland a lot of say in European lawsuits against these companies. With more favorable tax rates and often mild fines for violations, Ireland wants to attract the tech giants to its territory and keep them there.
New Complaints
For Proxistore, the matter is far from over after Monday’s ruling. The company from Wavre is filing three new complaints against Google. One of them would be for defamation, after Google publicly stated that Proxistore does not pay its invoices.
The initial complaint was about the unilateral blocking of Proxistore’s advertisements. The company offers local advertising services on international websites. Proxistore is thus a competitor, albeit a small fry compared to Google’s advertising machine. In February, campaigns were blocked for more than 72 hours, for which Proxistore demanded compensation.