Following a lengthy legal battle over anti-competitive practices, Google has been ordered to pay £2.4 billion (approximately Rs 26,172 crore) to UK-based entrepreneurs Shivaun and Adam Raff. This ruling, confirmed by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in September 2024, stems from a 2017 conviction by the European Commission, which found Google guilty of abusing its dominant position by giving preferential treatment to its own services, impacting competitors like the Raffs’ price comparison site, Foundem.
Founded in 2006, Foundem aimed to simplify price comparisons for consumers. However, shortly after its launch, the Raffs noticed a significant decline in their website’s ranking on Google for relevant search terms such as “price comparison” and “comparison shopping.”
“We monitored our pages and saw them all plummet almost immediately,” Adam Raff shared with the BBC, highlighting the couple’s initial assumption that the decline was merely a technical glitch. After receiving no response from Google for two years, their concerns grew.
“If you’re denied traffic, then you have no business,” Adam remarked in an interview with The Bottom Line, emphasizing the impact of low visibility on their operations.
Undeterred, the Raffs continued to voice their complaints directly to Google, convinced that the tech giant had irreparably harmed their business. When their appeals went unaddressed, they escalated the matter to UK, US, and EU regulators. In 2010, the European Commission initiated an antitrust investigation into Google.
In June 2017, the Commission ruled against Google, imposing a €2.4 billion fine after uncovering evidence of anti-competitive practices. Google challenged this decision, leading to lengthy appeals that culminated in the recent ECJ judgment, which upheld the fine and reaffirmed the importance of fair competition in digital markets.
In response, a Google spokesperson expressed disappointment, noting that the company had implemented measures to address the issues since early 2017. “The changes we made in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s Shopping decision have worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for more than 800 comparison shopping services,” the spokesperson stated. The Raffs, however, are pursuing additional civil damages against Google, with a trial set to take place in 2026.
