Google Faces $3.3B Lawsuit From Italy’s Moltiply Group: Search Giant Disagrees With ‘Exorbitant’ Private Damages Claims

Moltiply’s subsidiary 7Pixel is claiming damages for abuse of dominance that favored Google Shopping between 2010 and 2017.

Italy’s Moltiply Group, which operates the popular price comparison website Trovaprezzi.it, said on Friday that it is suing Google for €2.97 billion ($3.34 billion) for “ the abuse of dominance.”

The company said in a statement that its subsidiary 7Pixel S.r.l., which operates Trovaprezzi.it, has recently notified several Google Group entities of a follow-on claim for damages for the abuse of dominance that favored Google Shopping between 2010 and 2017, as determined by the European Court of Justice in September 2024.

“The amount of damages estimated by the experts commissioned by 7Pixel, including the structural effects of the abuse and interest, is equal to 2.97 billion euros,” it said.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters that the company strongly disagrees with “these exorbitant private damages claims which disregard this successful and growing industry.”

“The changes Google made in 2017 following the European Commission’s decision are working as intended, and the number of comparison shopping sites in Europe using our shopping features has multiplied from just 7 to more than 1,550,” the spokesperson told Reuters.

In September, Google lost its final appeal against the European Commission’s €2.42 billion fine from 2017.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sought to break up Google’s advertising technology business after a federal judge found that the search giant had illegal monopolies across two markets.

The company also faces a £5 billion (approximately $6.65 billion) class-action lawsuit in the U.K. over “near-total dominance” in the online search market.

Google-parent Alphabet Inc.’s class A and C shares traded marginally in the red in Friday’s pre-market session.

The shares have lost over 18% this year and have fallen by over 9% in the past 12 months.

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