A German court has found that Google abused its dominant market position in the price comparison sector. The court ruled that the company must pay a total of 572 million euros in damages to two German price comparison companies.
Google must pay the price comparison platform Idealo approximately 465 million euros in damages. It must also pay 107 million euros to Producto, another price comparison tool.
Idealo had originally claimed damages of 3.3 billion euros from Google. The company argued that its lawsuit was a direct response to a ruling from the European Court of Justice in 2024. That ruling found Google was self-preferencing its own shopping comparison service, which broke competition rules, and fined the company about 2.7 billion dollars.
Idealo stated that it intends to continue its case against Google and will seek the full damages it originally sued for. The company’s co-founder and CEO said that while they welcome the court holding Google accountable, the consequences of self-favoring go far beyond the awarded amount. He stated they will continue to fight because market abuse must have consequences and must not become a lucrative business model.
Google said it intends to appeal both rulings. A company spokesperson stated that the changes Google made in 2017 are working well, with no intervention from the European Commission. The spokesperson noted the number of price comparison sites in Europe using the remedy has multiplied from seven to over 1,500 today.
The company added that it offers rival comparison shopping services the same opportunity as Google Shopping to display ads. Google also said that Google Shopping operates as if it were a separate business, participating in auctions the same as everyone else.
This ruling follows shortly after an EU investigation into how Google’s spam policy affects publishers’ search rankings. The company was also recently fined 2.95 billion euros by the EU for allegedly breaching antitrust rules by favoring its own advertising services.