Google has been ordered to pay German price comparison companies about $665 in anti-trust violation damages. The court in Berlin ruled that portal Idealo would receive €465 million in damages while Producto GmbH will receive €107 million. Idealo and Google have said that they will appeal the verdict.

Google has already been fined €2.4 billion for anti-trust violations by the EU commission in 2017. It has said that it has brought about required changes and will appeal the rulings.

In a statement, Google said that it would appeal both the rulings. It said that the changes that they made in 2017 were working well “with no intervention from the European Commission.”

Google also said that they offered rival comparison shopping services the same opportunities that they provided to Google Shopping to display ads. They also said that Google Shopping operated as a separate business, with similar opportunities in auctions as other businesses.

Comparison search engine Idealo had originally demanded €3.5 billion, including interest for the period from 2008 to the end of 2023. It could add damages for the period 2024 to 2025. Axel Springer media group has a major stake, roughly 75 percent in the comparison search engine, while the remaining stake is held by the founders. 

Many American tech companies have been fined by the European Commission for antitrust violations and monopoly rights. Rules and regulations in the US are different from those in the European Union and this results in lawsuits.

Companies such as Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon have faced lawsuits in the EU. Some of these cases have been ongoing from years while others have been settled after the tech companies have paid fines or modified their products or have changed practices and services that are in compliance with EU rules and regulations.