German court orders Google to pay €573 million in antitrust damages

A court in Berlin has told Google to hand over €573 million to two German websites that compare prices online. The ruling came after the companies claimed they lost business because of how the search giant ran its operations.

The Berlin Regional Court made the decision on Thursday evening, but only made it public Friday morning. Idealo, owned by Axel Springer SE, will get €374 million, along with €91 million in extra payments for interest.

The company had asked for €3.3 billion.

In the second case, Producto GmbH will receive €89.7 million plus €17.7 million in interest, though it wanted €290 million.

These court cases go back to a 2017 ruling from the European Commission. That year, regulators hit Google with a €2.4 billion fine for breaking competition rules. Officials said the company used its powerful position in search to push its own shopping service ahead of rivals.

The commission’s decision opened the door for companies to file their own lawsuits seeking money for damages. These cases sat in limbo for years while Google fought the EU fine, according to Bloomberg.

Last year, a court backed up the original finding that Google broke antitrust laws. This means companies in Europe no longer need to prove wrongdoing themselves when they go to court.

Google offers ad tech changes to settle separate EU case

Today, Google said it would make changes to its advertising technology to resolve another EU complaint. As reported by Cryptopolitan, the company faces a nearly €3 billion fine in that case, but hopes its proposed fixes will settle the matter without having to split up parts of its business.

Google said through a blog post that it would let publishers set their own minimum prices when people bid for ad space on its Ad Manager platform. The company also promised to make its ad technology work better with other systems, giving publishers and advertisers more options.

Even with these proposed changes, Google said it still thinks the European Commission got it wrong in its September ruling and plans to fight the decision. EU officials claimed the Alphabet unit gave unfair advantages to its own ad services and demanded the company stop these practices.

Record fines continue to mount against tech giant

Teresa Ribera, who leads competition enforcement for the EU, suggested Google might need to sell off some parts of its advertising business to truly fix the problems. This idea does not go as far as what her predecessor Margrethe Vestager wanted, but Google still sees it as too extreme.

The €2.95 billion fine for the ad tech case ranks as one of Brussels’ biggest punishments. It stands as the second-largest penalty ever given to Google by the EU for abusing its market power. The company previously paid €4.13 billion over its Android mobile system and €2.42 billion for hurting shopping search competitors.

Another €1.49 billion fine related to AdSense was thrown out last year.

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