Google loses 15-year long legal battle with British couple

In an incredible story of David and Goliath, a British couple named Shivaun and Adam Raff successfully contested Google, resulting in a historic decision and a record-breaking punishment of Rs 21,824 crore for anti-competitive actions that impacted their business, Foundem.

The adventure started in 2006 when the pair started Foundem, a price-comparison website that compares prices on several platforms to make online buying easier. In June of that year, Foundem became operational, but a Google penalty quickly halted its initial growth.

Foundem was buried in the search engine’s ranks for phrases like “price comparison” and “comparison shopping”—the cornerstones of their business strategy—as a consequence of the Google penalty, which implies a website is no longer shown in search results.

The website had trouble making a profit since it depended on clicks to make money. Adam remarked, “We saw our rankings plummet almost immediately,” according to the BBC.

The Raffs first thought it was a technological glitch and contacted Google, hoping it would be fixed. But two years went by without a remedy, and Foundem continued to be hidden on Google’s platform even though it was operating regularly on other search engines. Shivaun pointed out that “everyone’s using Google,” underscoring the platform’s supremacy.

Foundem’s prominence temporarily returned in 2008 after winning an award from Channel 5’s The Gadget Show. The Raffs contacted Google once again in the hopes that the acknowledgment would confirm Foundem’s authenticity, but their concerns of unjust treatment were further strengthened by Google’s answer.

After that, the Raffs argued their case before regulatory agencies in the US, the UK, and eventually Brussels. When the European Commission (EC) opened an inquiry into Google’s business operations in 2010, their perseverance paid off.

The European Commission (EC) found Google guilty of abusing its market dominance in 2017 and fined the corporation Euro 2.4 billion (Rs 21,824 crore). This case marked a turning point in the regulation of Big Tech globally.

But in response, Google filed a number of appeals, dragging out the court case for years. The original decision was affirmed by Europe’s highest court in September 2024, ruling that Google’s conduct were in violation of competition rules.

But the fight was far from over for the Raffs. After Google appealed the ruling for years, the highest court in Europe finally upheld it in September 2024.

Google continues to insist that its present procedures adhere to the verdict notwithstanding this last setback. In the meanwhile, the European Commission is looking into whether Alphabet, the parent firm of Google, is still engaging in anti-competitive behavior under the recently passed Digital Markets Act.

The battle goes on for the Raffs. They are now suing Google for civil damages after being forced to close Foundem in 2016, and the case is scheduled to start in 2026.

The Raffs have had a difficult path, and despite having to close Foundem in 2016, the pair is still dedicated to fighting digital monopolies.