LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Google parent Alphabet

on Wednesday asked a London tribunal to throw out a

mass lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of abusing its

dominance in the online search market.

The lawsuit - valued at up to 7 billion pounds ($9.3

billion) - is the latest case focusing on the business practices

of Google, which is currently facing a major antitrust trial in

the United States over its online advertising business.

It is also one of several multibillion-pound cases to have

been filed at Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal in recent

years, including a similar case against Google for allegedly

abusing its dominance in the online advertising market.

Consumer rights campaigner and the lawsuit's

class representative Nikki Stopford argues Google's dominance

allows it to increase businesses' costs for search advertising

services which are then passed on to consumers.

Part of the lawsuit relies on the more than 4-billion-euro

($4.5 billion) fine levied on Google by the European Commission

in 2018 for imposing restrictions on manufacturers of Android

mobile devices, a decision being appealed by the tech company.

Stopford's lawyers also argue Google reached an

anticompetitive deal with Apple ( AAPL ) to make it the default

search engine on Apple's ( AAPL ) Safari browser in exchange for a share

of Google's mobile search ad revenues.

The lawyers asked the Competition Appeal Tribunal to certify

the case to proceed towards a trial, a very early step in any

mass lawsuit. Google, however, says the case is seriously

flawed.

"The suggestion that consumers have been harmed by the

Google conducts at issue is strongly rejected," Google's lawyer

Meredith Pickford said in court documents.

Pickford added that the European Commission's findings were

simply "technical complaints about the particular form by which

Google promoted its products".

He also said that Google's default search engine agreement

with Apple ( AAPL ) was "in principle perfectly lawful". Apple ( AAPL ) did not

immediately respond to a request for comment.

($1 = 0.8994 euros)