Rain of civil lawsuits, so Google risks having to pay out 12 billion euros
Alphabet is in the crosshairs of dozens of EU price comparison sites. They are accused of stealing customers and traffic by exploiting a dominant position
3' min read
3' min read
It is not only the arrival of intelligent chatbots, which are nibbling ever larger slices of online searches from the engines, that is putting pressure on one of the world's most important companies. But also a mix of lawsuits, in Europe, which could result in heavy penalties. How heavy? At least €12 billion.
The company in question is Alphabet (which controls Google), and what is going on has been reported in recent days by a Bloomberg investigation.
Google is indeed in the legal crosshairs of dozens of price comparison sites scattered across the European Union. The accusation? Having 'stolen' customers and traffic, abusing its dominant position. And the bill, as mentioned, is around 12 billion euros in damages claimed, or 13.3 billion dollars.
But let us take a step back. And let's understand where this story comes from. It was 2017 when the European Commission fined Google EUR 2.4 billion, accusing it of exploiting its search engine to benefit its own online shopping service to the detriment of competition. That fine triggered a series of 'follow-on' civil lawsuits, which remained frozen for years awaiting the appeal verdict. But now that a court has confirmed the antitrust violation, European companies no longer have to prove that Google broke the law: all they have to do is prove the damage suffered.
And at least 12 civil lawsuits are pending in seven European countries. Nine of these are already worth over 12 billion. An important figure, bearing in mind that this may only be the beginning.
