Google sued for €2.1 billion by shopping rival for unfair search placement

Enlarge / Let's see, you landed on my "Google Ads" space, and with three houses... that will be $1,400. (credit: Ron Amadeo / Hasbro)

Google is being sued in the European Union again over anti-competitive shopping practices.

The EU Commission ruled in 2017 that Google's preferential treatment of its own Google Shopping product in search results was illegal, and it slapped the company with a record-setting fine of 2.4 billion euros. The penalty was upheld in an appeal in 2021. Now, price-comparison service PriceRunner is suing Google for the harm it says was caused to its business over the last 12 years. PriceRunner is starting the suit at 2.1 billion euros, but "since the violation is still ongoing, the amount of damages increases every day," the company said. "We expect the final damages amount of the lawsuit to be significantly higher."

In a press release, PriceRunner Chief Executive Mikael Lindahl said the company is suing Google for "the damage Google has caused us during many years." But the company also sees the lawsuit "as a fight for consumers who have suffered tremendously from Google’s infringement of the competition law for the past fourteen years and still today,” Lindahl wrote.