Italy’s Moltiply Sues Google Over Antitrust Practices

Italian company Moltiply has sued Google for €2.97 billion (roughly $3.3 billion USD) in damages over the tech giant’s anticompetitive practices, according to a May 9 release. Moltiply argues that Google’s abuse of its market position harmed the popular Italian price comparison site Trovaprezzi.it.

7Pixel, a Moltiply subsidiary, operates the Trovaprezzi.it site, which allows users to compare different prices for products. Moltiply claims Google prioritized Google Shopping in search results at the expense of Trovaprezzi.

Though the damage claim is still underway, the lawsuit is based on a 2017 ruling by the European Commission, upheld in 2024, which found that Google “abused its dominant position in several national online search markets by favouring its own comparison shopping service over those of its competitors.”

“In 13 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), Google had given preference, on its general search results pages, to the results of its own comparison shopping service over those of competing comparison shopping services,” reads a September 2024 press release by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

“Google had thus presented search results from its own comparison shopping service in a primary position and had promoted them in ‘boxes’ with accompanying attractive image and text information. By contrast, the search results of competing comparison shopping services appeared as simple generic results (displayed in the form of blue links) and were, accordingly, […] prone to being demoted by adjustment algorithms in Google’s general results pages.”

The commission, which recently issued significant fines to Meta and Apple over antitrust practices, issued a €2.4 billion fine to Google after its original ruling. Moltiply now bases its damage claim on those findings, arguing that Google’s anticompetitive practices stunted 7Pixel’s growth between 2010 and 2017.

“We disagree strongly with these exorbitant private damages claims which disregard this successful and growing industry,” a Google spokesperson told Reuters.

Google has faced similar troubles worldwide over its anticompetitive practices. These include a recent cease and desist order by the Japan Fair Trade Commission over its preference for Google apps on Android devices. In the US, a recent court ruling found that Google’s ad business constitutes an illegal monopoly.