Italian digital commerce firm Moltiply Group announced on Friday that it has filed a €2.97 billion ($3.34 billion) lawsuit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, accusing the tech giant of abusing its dominant position in the online search market.
Moltiply, which owns the popular price comparison platform Trovaprezzi.it, claims that Google’s practices between 2010 and 2017 unfairly stifled the growth of its subsidiary, 7Pixel, by favoring Google’s own Shopping service in search results. The claim, reportedly submitted to a court in Milan, follows a broader pattern of antitrust scrutiny of Google’s operations in Europe.
The lawsuit builds on the European Commission’s landmark 2017 ruling that fined Google €2.42 billion for giving preferential treatment to its own price comparison service over competitors. That decision was upheld by the EU Court of Justice in September 2024, after Google’s final appeal was rejected.
“We disagree strongly with these exorbitant private damages claims which disregard this successful and growing industry,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters, defending the company’s position.
The spokesperson also emphasized that changes made in response to the EU ruling have significantly opened up the market. “The number of comparison shopping sites in Europe using our shopping features has multiplied from just 7 to more than 1,550 since 2017,” the spokesperson added.
The Moltiply lawsuit marks one of the largest damages claims in Europe related to Google’s shopping service practices and could set a precedent for other companies that believe they were adversely affected by the tech giant’s past behaviour.
