German Court Orders Google to Pay $665.6 Million in Damages to Price Comparison Companies
A recent ruling by a German court has found Google guilty of abusing its dominant market position in the price comparison sector. The court has ordered the tech giant to pay a total of €572 million ($665.6 million) in damages to two German price comparison companies, Idealo and Producto, according to a report by Reuters.
Specifically, Google has been instructed to pay Idealo approximately €465 million (around $540 million) and Producto €107 million (about $124 million) in damages, as per the court’s ruling.
Idealo had initially sought damages of €3.3 billion from Google, citing the European Court of Justice’s 2024 ruling that found Google guilty of self-preferencing its own shopping comparison service, which violated competition rules. The court fined Google approximately $2.7 billion for this offense.
In response to the recent court ruling, Idealo has stated its intention to continue pursuing the full amount of damages it had originally claimed against Google. Idealo’s co-founder and CEO, Albrecht von Sonntag, emphasized the importance of holding Google accountable for market abuse and preventing it from becoming a profitable business practice despite fines and compensation payments.
Google, on the other hand, has announced its plans to appeal both rulings. The company maintains that the changes it implemented in 2017 have been effective, with no intervention from the European Commission. Google highlighted that the number of price comparison sites in Europe utilizing its remedy Shopping Unit has significantly increased from seven to 1,550.
Furthermore, Google asserted that it provides rival comparison shopping services with equal opportunities to display ads, and Google Shopping operates independently as a separate business entity participating in auctions like any other competitor.
This court decision comes shortly after the EU’s investigation into Google’s spam policy’s impact on publishers’ search rankings. The EU recently fined Google €2.95 billion (nearly $3.5 billion) for allegedly violating EU antitrust regulations by favoring its own advertising services.
Note: This post has been updated to include a statement from Google.
