Google has faced a significant setback after losing a 15-year legal battle against a UK couple, Shivaun and Adam Raff, who were awarded a staggering £2.4 billion (approximately Rs 26,172 crore) in fines.
Google has faced a significant setback after losing a 15-year legal battle against a UK couple, Shivaun and Adam Raff, who were awarded a staggering £2.4 billion (approximately Rs 26,172 crore) in fines.
Google has faced a significant setback after losing a 15-year legal battle against a UK couple, Shivaun and Adam Raff, who were awarded a staggering £2.4 billion (approximately Rs 26,172 crore) in fines. The ruling stems from allegations of the tech giant abusing its market dominance through its shopping comparison service. Despite appealing against the fine originally imposed by the European Commission in 2017, the European Court of Justice rejected Google's appeal in September, leaving the company disappointed with the ruling.
The Raffs, who launched their price comparison website, Foundem, quit their well-paying jobs in 2006 to pursue their startup dream. However, they soon discovered that their site was subjected to a Google search penalty, resulting in a dramatic drop in search rankings for essential queries such as "price comparison" and "comparison shopping." Adam Raff expressed the challenges they faced, stating, We were monitoring our pages and how they were ranking, and then we saw them all plummet almost immediately.
The couple initially believed their website's poor performance was a mistake and thought it was merely collateral damage from Google's spam filters. They escalated their concerns but received no response from Google even after sending numerous requests over two years. Adam mentioned that if you're denied traffic, then you have no business, highlighting the devastating impact the penalty had on Foundem's operations.
As frustration mounted, the Raffs began approaching regulators in the UK, US, and Brussels for assistance. Despite their efforts, they were forced to close Foundem in 2016 due to the lack of support and resolution regarding their website's search performance. However, they are pursuing a civil damages claim against Google, which is set to commence in the first half of 2026.
The fine levied against Google is the largest penalty ever imposed by the European Commission, surpassing the previous record set in 2017. Although Google made changes in 2017 to comply with the Commission's decision, the repercussions of this legal battle have had a lasting impact on the Raffs and their once-promising venture. In a statement, Google asserted that its revised approach has successfully generated billions of clicks for over 800 comparison shopping services in the years since.
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