An EU antitrust decision in 2017 penalised Google because it favoured its own price comparison service and the decision forced Google to open product searches to competing services. In a blog, Google states that the internet traffic that leads to ads placed by competing price comparison sites for people who shop via Google has increased significantly recently.^[1]According to Mlex, ‘Google flags growing take-up of online shopping remedy after EU decision’, 29 March 2022.

According to the European Commission, about 90 percent of the offers displayed at the top of the search pages would contain at least one offer by a competitor. Google does this by displaying a Shopping Unit containing links to other comparison services such as Kelkoo and Shopzilla.com. But price comparison sites in Europe, including Idealo, Foundem and Kelkoo, have said that the remedy is not effective and that Google is in fact strengthening its market power. They asked for larger concessions from Google in the aftermath of a court decision last year that confirmed the Commission’s decision. A spokesperson from the Commission did not want to comment on Google’s blog post, but noted that in the latest data on the use of Google’s remedy, “about half the clicks in Shopping Units” relate to offers from Google’s competitors.