Alphabet’s Google is facing at least EUR 12 billion (roughly Rs. 1,13,259 crore) in damage claims from dozens of price comparison websites across the European Union which allege that the search and advertising giant stole their customers, according to a Bloomberg News review.
The civil suits are linked to a 2017 decision by the European Commission to fine Google EUR 2.4 billion (roughly Rs. 22,651 crore) for illegally leveraging its search dominance to give its own shopping service an edge. That unleashed a wave of so-called “follow-on” suits, which were delayed for years as Google appealed. Then, last year, a tribunal confirmed that the company did violate antitrust laws — meaning EU-based plaintiffs no longer have to prove that in court. Many of the cases are now moving ahead.
Bloomberg News has identified 12 ongoing civil cases in seven countries in Europe. While not all of the courts and parties involved were willing to disclose how much was at stake, the value of nine of the claims exceed €12 billion (roughly Rs. 1,13,270 crore).
The suits, which have proliferated in recent years, represent a new front in Google’s legal battles in Europe. If successful, they could encourage more companies to take action against the tech titan, and come on top of the fines that have already been handed down by EU regulators.
The amounts claimed in follow-on suits are often many times higher than EU penalties for the same activity, said Christian Kersting, a law professor at Düsseldorf University. The claims also compound the company’s legal headaches at a moment in which the US Department of Justice is seeking to force it to spin off key parts of its advertising and search browser businesses following losses in two antitrust cases.
Google denies that any of the European civil suits have merit. The company, valued at just under $2 trillion (roughly Rs. 1,70,07,760 crore) as of early May, declined to say how many claims were brought around the antitrust decision, or the amounts in question.
Many of the cases will soon have their day in court. At the end of June, a London judge will consider a GBP 1 billion ($1.6 billion or roughly Rs. 13,606 crore) claim by the British website Kelkoo and the now-defunct site Foundem. In September, a court in Amsterdam will hear oral arguments in a suit brought by the Dutch company Compare Group.
Two hearings are planned in Hamburg in October, and judges in Berlin have scheduled two more in November, including a EUR 3.3 billion (roughly Rs. 31,156 crore) case brought by Axel Springer-owned Idealo. Google is also fighting a EUR 2.1 billion (roughly Rs. 19,826 crore) claim by the Swedish website Pricerunner, now owned by Klarna; and a EUR 500 million (roughly Rs. 4,719 crore) claim by the Polish website Ceneo.
At the same time, new claims are still being submitted. A EUR 900 million (roughly Rs. 8,499 crore) suit was filed in Amsterdam last month on behalf of several companies including PreisRoboter, a German website that went out of business, and Portugal’s KuantoKusta, according to litigation firm LitFin, which brought the case. Last week, Italy’s Moltiply Group SA announced that it had notified Google about a EUR 2.97 billion (roughly Rs. 28,047 crore) claim for losses that it alleges its comparision shopping website Trovaprezzi suffered between 2010 and 2017.
As time has passed, some plaintiffs have increased their claims and recruited external litigation funders, alleging that Google continues to violate antitrust laws by manipulating search results and failing to comply with the EU’s 2017 order. That, they say, has allowed the tech giant to unfairly dominate web traffic and profits.
“We’re stressing our demand for effective consequences for abusive behavior,” Albrecht von Sonntag, co-founder of Idealo, said in February after the company raised its EUR 500 million (roughly Rs. 4,721 crore) claim to €3.3 billion (roughly Rs. 31,155 crore). “The internet can’t and mustn’t be dominated by monopolies to the detriment of consumers, fair competition and the European economy.”
Google rejects the accusations, saying an ad display it introduced in 2017 for price comparison sites has worked well. The company doesn’t differentiate between its own shopping service and those of rivals, a spokesperson added, noting that more than 1,550 comparison shopping sites in Europe currently use its display — up from just seven in 2017.
“We strongly disagree with these lawsuits, which are brought by companies looking for a payout instead of investing in their own products,” a Google spokesperson said.
Apart from the civil cases, the EU has also imposed roughly EUR 8 billion (roughly Rs. 75,522 crore) in fines on the company since 2017 over antitrust violations, though some of these penalties have been rolled back. In addition to the EUR 2.4 billion (roughly Rs. 22,656 crore) levy in the price comparison ruling, Google was fined EUR 4.34 billion (roughly Rs. 40,970 crore) and EUR 1.49 billion (roughly Rs. 14,064 crore) for practices related to its Android system and advertising contracts. Google is currently appealing the Android fine, which was reduced by a lower court. The fine in the advertising case was annulled, although the European Commission may still appeal.
Even with the backing of the European Commission decision, the civil suits now wending their way through the courts are not certain victories. The plaintiffs still need to prove that the search giant’s actions were responsible for the decline in their profits — a hurdle that Kersting, the law professor, said could be difficult to clear.
“You have to factor out other causes,” he said, explaining that the companies must demonstrate that market swings or poor business strategies, for example, were not to blame. “That makes things very time-consuming and extremely complicated.”
Enforcement could pose another challenge. While Kersting described civil cases as “a pillar of antitrust enforcement in the EU, on equal footing with regulators’ actions,” should companies win their cases and Google choose not to pay, they would likely have to ask US courts to step in. That could risk triggering the wrath of the White House, as Donald Trump has already attacked European regulators for unfairly targeting US tech companies.
Meanwhile, Google’s court troubles aren’t restricted to Europe. Last year, Yelp filed a suit in San Francisco accusing Google of abusing its market dominance. It alleged that the company favored reviews from its own crowd-sourced rating system over those of its rivals — a claim Google has said is without merit.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
