PriceRunner is suing Google Shopping for $2.4 billion over anti-trust practices

A price comparison platform called “PriceRunner” that’s based out of Sweden is looking to sue Google, and more specifically, Google Shopping for anti-trust practices. Is anyone surprised? Basically, after the EU slapped Google with an antitrust lawsuit for Shopping, PriceRunner is following up with a lawsuit for damages of about €2.1 billion, or $2.4 billion USD, stating that Google has taken a “Monopoly-like” position in the market that hurts competitors.

Google’s general search engine has a market share of over 90 percent in most countries in the EEA-region[1] and thereby is in a monopoly-like position. After an almost eight-year-long investigation, the European Commission announced in June 2017 that Google had violated European competition laws by giving unfair advantages on its own search engine to its own comparison shopping service (Google Shopping).

PriceRunner

In response, Google has launched an appeal to the court’s decision, which was then shot down. Despite this, the company continues to “work constructively with the European Commission”, believing that areas of its decision require “legal clarification” according to a Google spokesperson who revealed this to Reuters a few weeks ago.

Anyway, PriceRunner states that Google has caused them damage and taken their visibility on the market for years. Its CEO, Mikael Lindahl says that it has “suffered tremendously from Google’s infringement of the competition law for the past fourteen years and still today”.

As companies like Google grow and expand in scope of its offerings, it’s natural for entrepreneurs and small businesses to take a hit as a result of that dominance and marketing prowess. Google has historically done a lot to help small businesses gain visibility, but if you ask me, with growth comes an inevitable ceiling where the scales simply can’t remain balanced for all parties.

Since PriceRunner’s lawsuit against Google will likely take many years, we probably won’t hear much about this until it progresses, but the company is firm in its desire to pursue litigation and has “secured external funding” that will cover all of the costs. Let me know in the comments what you think about the aforementioned scale Google sits on one side of while entrepreneurs and small businesses sit on the other end.