A German court has found that Google abused its dominant market position in the price comparison field and ordered the company to pay two German price comparison companies a total of 572 million euros ($665.6 million) in damages, Reuters reported.
According to the report, Google will have to pay around 465 million euros (about $540 million) in damages to price comparison platform Idealo and 107 million euros (about $124 million) to another price comparison tool, Producto.
Idealo is seeking 3.3 billion euros in damages from Google, arguing that its lawsuit was a direct response to a 2024 European Court of Justice ruling that found the search giant had taken advantage of its shopping comparison service, breaching competition rules and fined it about $2.7 billion.
Idealo said Friday it will continue its lawsuit against Google and seek full damages for the amount it sued.
“We welcome the court to hold Google accountable,” Idealo co-founder and CEO Albrecht von Sonntag said in a statement. “However, the self-serving results far exceed the verdict. We will continue to fight because market abuse must have consequences and should not become a profitable business model that remains valuable despite paying fines and compensation.”
Google said it intends to appeal both rulings. “The changes we made in 2017 are working well without intervention from the European Commission. The number of European price comparison sites using the Relief Shopping Unit has increased from seven sites at the time to 1,550 sites today,” a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The company added that it offers rival comparison shopping services the same advertising opportunities as Google Shopping, and said Google Shopping operates as if it were a separate business and participates in auctions like any other company.
The ruling comes on the heels of an EU investigation into how Google’s spam policies affect publishers’ search rankings. The company was recently fined 2.95 billion euros (just under $3.5 billion) by the EU for violating EU antitrust laws by giving preferential treatment to its advertising services.
Note: This story has been updated with comment from Google.
