Google is threatening to pay damages in the antitrust dispute with the German price comparison portal Idealo.
This became apparent after an oral hearing in the case before the Berlin Regional Court. However, it remained unclear after the first day of negotiations whether Idealo would be able to prevail with his billion-dollar demand. The court indicated that the amount could be significantly smaller than the 3.3 billion euros in damages demanded.
The price comparison engine, which is majority owned by the media group Axel Springer, accuses Google of having abused its dominant position as a search engine for years. The US group preferred its own offers over Idealo. The portal also requires comprehensive information about traffic, sales and profits from Google. The US group rejects the demand for compensation as completely excessive.
Idealo co-founder Albrecht von Sonntag said that Google has been abusing its market power for more than 15 years to favor its own service – at the expense of competitors and consumers. “We welcome the fact that the court is signaling that Google’s self-preferential treatment must have consequences. EU competition law must also apply to the most powerful.”
Billion dollar fine by the EU Commission
In this matter, the EU Commission had already imposed a competition fine of 2.4 billion euros against Google in 2017 – long before the European digital law DMA (Digital Markets Act) came into force. The fine was confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg in September 2024.
The focus of the dispute is the price comparison service Google Shopping. The EU Commission argued in 2017 that the US digital company had preferred the results of its own service over competitors’ price comparison services on the general search results page.
Claims increased rapidly
Idealo filed the lawsuit against Google in the Berlin district court in 2019; At that time, the company demanded compensation of half a billion euros. The proceedings were suspended as long as the legal dispute between the EU Commission and Google was pending. Idealo reserved the right to expand the lawsuit. This February, after the proceedings were resumed, the claim was recalculated: Idealo is now demanding around 2.7 billion euros in damages and 600 million euros in interest for the period 2008 to 2023.
The Commission’s decision from 2017 is no longer in question before the civil chamber of the Berlin Regional Court because it was confirmed by the ECJ ruling in 2024. However, what is disputed between Idealo and Google is the period to which this accusation refers.
That’s what Google and Idealo say
Google argues that after the EU Commission’s decision in 2017, it made extensive changes to Google Shopping in order to eliminate the antitrust allegations. Brussels had obliged Google to give other price comparison services access to shopping results. “Google had an enormous interest in implementing the Commission’s guidelines because otherwise it would have faced very high fines,” said a Google lawyer in the hearing before the Berlin Regional Court. “What more can a company do than what Google did?”
Idealo, on the other hand, is of the opinion that Google only made cosmetic changes in 2017. “The basic problem of illegal antitrust advantages still exists today,” said Idealo co-founder von Sonntag.
EU initiates new proceedings against Google
The EU suspects the US internet giant Google of unlawfully discriminating against media and publishing websites in its search results. The responsible European Commission is therefore initiating proceedings, as it announced. Specifically, it concerns a Google policy according to which media content is presumably devalued in search results if their websites contain specific commercial content from third parties.
“Ensuring news publishers don’t lose revenue”
Commission Vice-President Teresa Ribera said: “We are concerned that Google’s policies result in news publishers not being treated fairly, appropriately and without discrimination in search results.” This will be examined to ensure that news publishers do not lose important revenue at a difficult time for the industry.
Specifically, the commission wants to see whether “Google applies fair, appropriate and non-discriminatory access conditions for publishers’ websites in Google search.” The US giant is obliged to do this according to EU digital law (Digital Markets Act, DMA).
Google called the investigation misguided. “It carries the risk of harming millions of European users,” said the US company. The directive criticized by the Commission is important to protect users from low-quality content and fraud. In addition, a German court has already ruled in favor of Google in a similar case.
Google policy potentially affects legitimate trading
The Commission also said it had found evidence that Google, based on its so-called Site Reputation Abuse Policy, may be affecting a common and legitimate way for publishers to make money from their websites and content. According to Google, the policy is intended to prevent practices that purport to manipulate rankings.
The Commission now wants to see whether the downgrading of publishing content by Google’s parent company Alphabet affects the entrepreneurial freedom of publishers, their innovative strength and their cooperation with third-party providers.
The EU Commission has already punished Google repeatedly
The initiation of the procedure does not mean proof of a violation, the authority emphasized. The commission wants to complete the investigation within twelve months. In the event of a violation, there is a risk of fines of up to ten percent of the global annual turnover, and for repeated violations of up to 20 percent. In serious cases, the authority could also order structural measures such as splitting up the company.
The EU Commission had already imposed several competition penalties on Google and Alphabet since 2017, totaling over eleven billion euros. The highest fine to date was a good four billion euros for business with the Google Android operating system. A claim for damages brought by the German price comparison portal Idealo against Google is currently being heard in the Berlin Regional Court. This concerns the business practices regarding Google Shopping that were criticized by the Commission in 2017.
Alphabet shares temporarily fell 2.48 percent to $280.38 in NASDAQ trading.
BERLIN (dpa-AFX)
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