Google has been ordered by a Berlin court to pay €465 million in damages to Idealo, the German price-comparison platform, after judges concluded the company abused its dominance in general search, Reuters reported.
According to two rulings issued on Thursday, the court found that Google gave preferential placement to its own shopping service over competitors between 2008 and 2023. A court spokesperson said the decisions are open to appeal.
A second comparison site, Producto, was also awarded compensation under the same judgments, receiving €107 million.
Idealo, part of the Axel Springer group, had originally sought €3.3 billion including interest. Co-founder Albrecht von Sonntag said the company intends to continue seeking further redress, arguing that “market abuse must have consequences and must not become a lucrative business model.”
Google rejected the court’s decisions and said it will appeal. The company highlighted changes implemented in 2017 that, it said, give rival comparison services equal access to advertising slots on its search results pages. A Google spokesperson noted that the number of price-comparison providers using the Shopping Unit has risen from seven to 1,550.