Price comparators: EU must act against Google Shopping advantage

Google still favors its own price comparator Shopping in search results and as a result competitive price comparators have less chance of competing within search results, say other price comparators. Google was previously fined 2.4 billion euros for this.

More than forty European price comparison sites that compete with Google Shopping want European competition authorities to take stricter action against Google. In a letter to the European Commission, seen by Reutersthe price comparison sites write that Google’s previous promises to treat competing services equally to Shopping have not been enough in practice.

The letter concerns a fine of 2.4 billion euros that the European Commission imposed on Google in 2017. Competitive price comparators were then placed lower in the search results than Google’s own price comparator Shopping, making Shopping more visible than other services.

In response to that lawsuit, Google promised to treat its own service the same as competing price comparison services at auctions for space in the shopping box at the top of search results. This shopping box contains search results from Shopping and competitive price comparison sites when users search for product prices, for example.

The complainant price comparators, including the UK’s Kelkoo, the French LeGuide Group, the Swedish PriceRunner and the German idealo, now tell the Commission that that promise was legally insufficient and did not ensure that they benefit from those ad auctions. The complainants therefore ask the Commission to ensure that more space is made available in search results for competing services, giving consumers more choice and lower prices. The price comparison sites also state that Google’s current activities go against the Digital Markets Act, new rules that will come into effect in May next year.