Italian company Moltiply Group, which operates popular price comparison website Trovaprezzi, has announced that it is suing Google’s parent company Alphabet. The company is seeking damages, as Google is abusing its dominant market position.
The Moltiply Group owns several brands, including comparison platforms that are part of its subsidiary 7Pixel. That subsidiary also operates the popular Italian website Trovaprezzi.
Stunting growth
According to the company, Google deliberately stunted the growth of 7Pixel between 2010 and 2017. Google gave priority to its own platform Google Shopping in search results. Allegedly, this structurally led users to Google’s own shopping service, which disadvantaged competitors.
Previous lawsuits
It is not the first time that price comparison platforms complain about Google. It is also not the first time that the company is sued. In 2017, the European Commission already concluded that Google was favoring its own Google Shopping over other comparison websites in search results. The search engine received a record-breaking fine of 2.4 billion euros, after which Google was found to have improved.
Google was also sued by PriceRunner in 2022, for 2.1 billion euros
However, competitors disagreed and said that it was still abusing its market power afterwards. In 2022, Swedish PriceRunner sued the search engine for 2.1 billion euros. According to that company, Google was still favoring its shopping services over other comparison websites.
Claim of 2.97 billion euros
The claim was filed by Moltiply in Milan. It is seeking 2.97 billion euros (3.34 billion dollars) in damages. Further details have not yet been released.
‘The changes Google made in 2017 are working as intended’, said a spokesperson for Google
“We disagree strongly with these exorbitant private damages claims which disregard this successful and growing industry”, a spokesperson for Google said to Reuters. “The changes Google made in 2017 following the European Commission’s decision are working as intended and the number of comparison shopping sites in Europe using our shopping features has multiplied from just 7 to more than 1,550.”
