German price comparison sites Idealo and Producto win lawsuit over giving Google’s own services more prominence in Google Search.
Google has once again been convicted of abuse of power, writes Engadget. A court in Berlin has ruled that the company must pay a total of 572 million euros to the German price comparison sites Idealo (465 million euros) and Producto (107 million euros). According to the court, Google unfairly favored its own Google Shopping service in the search results for years.
Economic Damage
The case concerns Google allegedly displaying its own shopping services more prominently than those of competitors. Idealo already went to court in February of this year, demanding at least 3.3 billion euros in damages. The company says that the awarded damages are only “a fraction” of the real economic damage, and announces that it will continue to litigate.
Google defended itself by pointing to adjustments from 2017, where other price comparison sites could also purchase advertising space via Google Search. The court finds that insufficient to compensate for earlier damage. The Digital Markets Act (DMA) obliges Google and other tech giants to offer competitors fair access.
Europe Continues to Fight
This is not the first conflict between Google and European authorities. Previously, the company was fined for favoring Google Flights and Google Hotels, and last month the European Commission imposed nearly three billion euros in fines for abuse of power in the advertising market.