A number of price comparison sites have accused Google of failing to comply with EU regulations.

The sites have accused the tech giant of flouting rules that ensure Google gives other consumer services “equal treatment”.

The accusations by the 14 companies have been sent to the European commissioners for competition, Margrethe Vestager.

Rule-Breakers

According to the sites, Google is harming competition and continues to conduct illegal practices, which they insist must be stopped.

“The harm to competition, consumers and innovation caused by Google’s illegal conduct had continued unabated,” the letter reads.

The 14 price comparison sites include Acheter-mons-cher.com, PriceRunner, Idealo and Foundem, the latter of which lodged a complaint against Google in 2010 for similar practices.

Vestager previously fined Google £2 billion for anti-competitive practices in 2017 and was a leading figure in its most recent EU fine, which saw the company fined a record £3.9 billion this year for breaching anti-trust rules.

Following the 2017 fine, Vestager ordered the company to restore competition on the platform. However, rivals insist this has not happened.

Google has previously allowed rivals to bid against its services for advertising slots on Google Shopping, yet despite this move, the sites claim companies have been unable to partake in the auction model.

Through this scheme, they argue, many companies expend large amounts of money to achieve ad-slots.

Competition

An investigation last month found that Google was offering large incentives to advertising agencies to create price comparison websites in order to present a positive image and stiff competition.

According to the sites lodging this complaint, the comparison shopping services (CSS) are largely fake.

“Presumably, realising that it will never be possible to populate its new auction with enough genuine comparison shopping services to create even the veneer of a functioning remedy, Google has now set about populating it with fake ones instead,” the comparison sites wrote.

If Google fails to adhere to regulations set by the Commission, the tech giant could incur penalties for non-compliance, which are up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of its parent company, Alphabet.

These payments would also be backdated to the point of non-compliance, the Commission said.