Google suffers another setback in its antitrust battle in Europe, according to a Reuters report.Refers toA Berlin court in Germany ruled that Google must pay a total of €5.72 million (nearly $6.65 million) in damages to two German companies for "abusing its dominant market position."
The court ruled that Idealo was "self-biased" and awarded it $5.4 million in damages.
In this ruling, both plaintiffs are German price comparison platforms. The court ordered Google to pay Idealo approximately €4.65 million (about $5.4 million) and Producto approximately €1.07 million (about $1.24 million). The core of the ruling was that Google abused its dominant position in the search market by presenting "self-biased" results in its search results, prioritizing its own Google Shopping service.
When Idealo filed the lawsuit in February of this year, it initially sought damages of up to 33 billion euros (more than $38 billion), claiming that Google's actions created an unfair market advantage and severely hampered competitors.
Google says it has revised its policies in 2017; Idealo criticizes the abuse of these policies as unacceptable for profit.
In response to the accusations, Google argued that it had made changes in 2017 allowing competing shopping platforms to receive the same search exposure as Google Shopping. However, Idealo was clearly dissatisfied with the amount of the judgment, as stated in a related statement...displayThe amount awarded in this case "reflects only a small fraction of the actual damages" and indicates that legal pressure will continue to be exerted.
In a press release, Idealo co-founder and advisory board member Albrecht von Sonntag added: "Abuse of dominance must have consequences and must never be a business model that allows companies to profit even after paying fines and damages."
European regulatory pressure continues, following a recent fine of $34 billion.
This is not the first time Google has faced legal trouble in Europe recently. Not long ago, Google also faced a huge fine from the EU under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for being accused of favoring its own Google Flights and Google Hotels services in search results.
Just a month earlier, the European Commission had imposed a fine on Google for its anti-competitive practices in the ad technology industry.Nearly 30 billion euros A fine of over $34 billion.
