The Federal Court has ordered Public Bank to pay RM30 million each in equitable, exemplary, and aggravated damages to National Feedlot Corporation and three others for disclosing its accounts to the public.
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has ordered Public Bank Bhd to pay RM90mil in damages to National Feedlot Corporation ( Corp), its chairman Datuk Mohamad Salleh Ismail, and three subsidiary companies for breaching confidentiality by leaking bank account information.
A three-judge panel, chaired by Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Hasnah Mohammed, made the decision on the quantum of damages here yesterday.
The court ordered the bank to pay RM30mil for equitable damages, RM30mil for aggravated damages and another RM30mil for exemplary damages.
It also imposed a 2% interest on the total, beginning yesterday, until the amount is paid off.
Other judges on the bench were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli and Federal Court judge Justice Abu Bakar Jais.
On May 26, the same panel dismissed Public Bank’s appeal in the lawsuit filed by Corp and four others.
The panel unanimously dismissed the bank’s appeal to overturn the Court of Appeal’s August 2023 decision on grounds that common law was not applicable in the case.
It ordered Public Bank to pay RM300,000 in costs to Corp and others.
Regarding a cross-appeal by Corp and others against the Court of Appeal’s award of RM10,000 in nominal damages, the court allowed the appeal but deferred the decision on the damages’ quantum until Wednesday.
On Aug 30, 2023, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by Mohamad Salleh and its subsidiaries against Public Bank for breaching contract confidentiality.
The appellate court found a serious misappreciation of evidence, warranting appellate intervention, and ordered Public Bank to pay RM500,000 in costs.
The lawsuit, filed on May 22, 2012, alleged the bank breached confidentiality by allowing banking transaction details to be revealed by then PKR vice-president Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli, who recently resigned as Economy Minister.
They claimed the breach caused irreparable loss and damage to their business reputation under the Banking and Financial Institutions Act.
On July 29, 2019, the High Court dismissed the lawsuit against the bank.
When met by the media later, Mohamad Salleh thanked his legal team.
“My family and I... my wife and children, we went through several hardships over the years.
U.S. targets Google's online ad business monopoly in latest Big Tech lawsuit
WASHINGTON, - The U.S. Justice Department accused Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday of abusing its dominance in digital advertising, threatening to dismantle a key business at the heart of one of Silicon Valley's most successful internet companies.
The government said Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, tackling a business that generated about 12 percent of Google's revenues in 2021, but also plays a vital role in the search engine and cloud company's overall sales.
"Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies," the antitrust complaint said.
Google, whose advertising business is responsible for about 80% of its revenue, said the government was "doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow."
The federal government has said its Big Tech investigations and lawsuits are aimed at leveling the playing field for smaller rivals to a group of powerful companies that includes Amazon.com (AMZN.O), Facebook owner Meta Platforms (META.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O).
"By suing Google for monopolizing advertising technology, the DOJ today aims at the heart of the internet giant’s power," said Charlotte Slaiman, competition policy director at Public Knowledge. "The complaint lays out the many anticompetitive strategies from Google that have held our internet ecosystem back."
Tuesday's lawsuit by the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, follows a 2020 antitrust lawsuit brought against Google during the term of Donald Trump, a Republican.
The 2020 lawsuit alleged violations of antitrust law in how the company acquires or maintains its dominance with its monopoly in online search and is scheduled to go to trial in September.
EIGHT STATES IN LAWSUIT
Eight states joined Tuesday's lawsuit, including Google's home state of California.
California State Attorney General Rob Bonta said that Google's practices have "stifled creativity in a space where innovation is crucial."
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said that Google's dominance had led to higher fees for advertisers and less money for publishers with ad space to offer. "We are taking action by filing this lawsuit to unwind Google’s monopoly and restore competition to the digital advertising business," he said in a statement.
Google shares were down 1.9 percent on Tuesday.
[1/2] A logo of Google is seen at its exhibition space, at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France June 15, 2022. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
In addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses. The government asked for the divestiture of the Google Ad Manager suite, including Google's ad exchange, AdX.
Google Ad Manager is a suite of tools including one that allows websites to offer advertising space for sale and an exchange that serves a marketplace that automatically matches advertisers with those publishers.
Advertisers and website publishers have complained that Google has not been transparent about where ad dollars go, specifically how much goes to publishers and how much to Google.
The lawsuit raises concerns about certain products in the ad tech stack, where publishers and advertisers use Google's tools to buy and sell ad space on other websites. That business was about $31.7 billion in 2021 or 12.3 percent of Google’s total revenue. About 70% of that revenue goes to publishers.
An ad tech divestiture "may not be a game changer but it could be sneaky important to Google's ad targeting capability," said Paul Gallant with the Cowen Washington Research Group.
"It connects to all of Google's other businesses and ties them together. I think Google might be more concerned about losing ad tech down the road than people might think," Gallant said.
The company made a series of purchases, including DoubleClick in 2008 and AdMob in 2009, to help make it a dominant player in online advertising.
'PROJECT POIROT'
While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling to 28.8% last year from 36.7% in 2016, according to Insider Intelligence.
The Justice Department asked for a jury to decide the case, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The lawsuit lays out a number of Google's attempts to dominate the advertising market.
The complaint discussed header bidding, which was a way that companies could bypass Google to bid on ad space on websites.
It lays out a series of projects including one dubbed "Project Poirot" named after Agatha Christie’s master detective, Hercule Poirot. The project "was designed to identify and respond effectively to ad exchanges that had adopted header bidding technology."
The 149-page complaint said Google doubled down after Project Poirot's initial success in manipulating its advertisers' spending to reduce competition from rival ad exchanges. Rivals AppNexus/Xandr lost 31% of DV360 advertiser spending, Rubicon would lose 22%, OpenX would lose 42%, and Pubmatic would lose 26%, the complaint said.
Reporting by Diane Bartz and David Shepardson; additional reporting by Sheila Dang; editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool
