Google faces $2.4 billion suit for prioritizing Shopping in search results

PriceRunner is seeking 10 years worth of damages

Google can’t catch a break in Europe. It currently has three major cases pending in the EU with nearly $10 billion in fines swinging over its head like a financial sword of Damocles. Back in November it lost a major appeal worth $2.8 billion to the General Court of the EU. Google appealed this decision with the EU’s highest court last month. Despite these ongoing legal shenanigans, at least one Google Shopping competitor believes that Google isn’t abiding by the court’s decisions and has decided to sue the company for over $2 billion.

The company in question is the Sweden-based price comparison service PriceRunner. It alleges Google’s actions from 2008 to 2020 have cost the company 22 billion kronor ($2.41 billion). But, since Google's alleged violation is ongoing, PriceRunner expects to be awarded even more as the case proceeds. Further, it is including 8% annual interest on the damages it is seeking. Because it expects this case to take “several years” to resolve, the final award could be much higher.

To understand the origins of this, we have to go back to 2017 when the European Commission ruled that Google was using its dominant market position in the EU to unfairly favor its own price comparison service, Google Shopping. Google appealed that decision to the General Court of the EU but lost. The US company's final recourse is the European Court of Justice, to which it has appealed, but the process could take another four years to resolve.

In addition to the ongoing cases in the EU, Google is also facing fines in India and the United States. For its part, Google seems more than ready to challenge these cases. In early January it announced that it was raising the annual salary of its chief legal officer, Kent Walker, to $1 million. Two weeks later, Walker penned a blog post outlining the dangers — not just to Google, but the public at large — of overregulation and anti-technology bills.

All of Google’s legal troubles revolve around the same thing: abuse of its dominant market position. Worldwide, Google controls over 85% of the search market, a position it leverages to promote its other services like online advertising which is the source of over 80% of its revenue. In other words, anything that messes with Search, messes with the foundation of its business model. So expect Google to continue fighting these cases whenever and wherever they crop up.

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