A British couple recognized that Google favored its own price comparison services and disadvantaged competitors like them. Their persistence led to a billion-dollar fine for the tech giant by the EU Commission.
What was Foundem? In 2006, just eight years after Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a British couple launched the price comparison website “Foundem”.
Adam and Shivaun Raff had high hopes for their idea and the newly founded company, as it offered more features than other price search engines at the time.
In 2006, online price comparisons were still in their infancy and mostly focused on individual product categories, such as flight prices. Adam eventually had the idea for a platform that compares nearly all desired products – thus Foundem was born.
Google engaged in anti-competitive practices
What was the problem with Google? Shortly after the launch of Foundem, the couple realized that their website was rapidly falling in the Google search results – despite relevant content. “We monitored our pages and their ranking and saw how they almost immediately crashed,” they told the BBC.
Despite multiple complaints, Google remained inactive. It quickly became clear to the two: Google’s own price comparison service was being favored while competitors were systematically disadvantaged.
How did they take action against Google? Instead of giving up on their platform, they decided to fight against this discrimination. After several unsuccessful attempts to address the problem directly with Google, they filed a complaint with the EU Commission in 2010.
They accused Google of abusing its market power to favor its own services and disadvantage competitors (via Techspot). This assumption triggered a comprehensive investigation by the EU Commission.
What was the outcome of the investigation? After years of investigation, the European Commission found that Google had indeed abused its market power by favoring its own comparison services and thereby disadvantaging others. In 2017, Google was fined a record 2.42 billion euros (via EU Commission).
Despite years of litigation, the European Court of Justice finally confirmed the ruling in September 2024 – Google lost (via Noerr).
For Adam and Shivaun Raff, the ruling was a victory after nearly two decades of battling one of the world’s most powerful corporations. However, for Foundem, the ruling came too late – the company no longer exists today.
The case shows that persistence and conviction can make a difference even in the fight against billion-dollar corporations – at least in terms of justice. There are similar conflicts in the gaming industry as well: A former Bungie developer makes serious allegations against Sony and sues for defamation
