Price-comparison sites call for new Google Shopping probe

Last week, price-comparison websites hit out at Google's shopping service. Google Shopping has been attacked by 41 price-comparison companies in Europe, which have called on the European Commission to reopen an investigation into Google. A previous fine of €2.4 billion was landed on Google earlier.

In a letter sent to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, the websites argued they are losing out to the continuing dominance of Google Shopping as the platform would still be unfairly promoting its own shopping service over rivals on search results pages. This would mean that price-comparison sites would miss out on traffic, the firms state. They say it is an abuse of power.

Among the firms are Compare Group, idealo, Kelkoo, Billiger.de and Ladenzeile.de. The companies state that the earlier fine and obliged (paid) displaying of comparison-platforms did not have any effect at all.

Results?

In an earlier speech at the Web Summit in Lisboa, Euro Commissioner Margrethe Vestager admitted that the earlier taken measures didn't work out as planned. This is especially the case for price-comparison sites, as they have to pay for a top position and they do not see any relevant increase in traffic. Webshops do seem to benefit from the measures that were taken.