Shivaun and Adam Raff’s price comparison website, Foundem, was crushed by Google flexing its monopoly muscles, prompting a 15-year legal battle that resulted in a record $2.58 billion fine for the tech giant.
BBC News reports that in June 2006, Shivaun and Adam Raff launched their innovative price comparison website, Foundem, with high hopes of revolutionizing the online shopping experience. However, their dream quickly turned into a nightmare when their website was hit by a Google search penalty, drastically reducing its visibility in search results for relevant queries. This marked the beginning of a grueling 15-year legal battle that would ultimately lead to a landmark moment in the global regulation of Big Tech.
The couple initially believed that the search penalty was a mistake, a false positive detection of spam by Google’s automatic filters. They reached out to the tech giant numerous times, hoping to have the restriction lifted, but their requests went unanswered for over two years. Meanwhile, Foundem continued to rank normally on other search engines, but with Google’s dominant market share, the impact on their business was devastating.
As time passed, the Raffs began to suspect that Google’s actions were deliberately anti-competitive. In 2008, Foundem was named the best price comparison website in the UK by The Gadget Show, leading to a surge in traffic. The couple reached out to Google once more, arguing that it was not benefiting users to make their website difficult to find, but they were met with a dismissive response.
Determined to fight back, Shivaun and Adam took their case to regulators in the UK, US, and Brussels. It was the European Commission (EC) that eventually launched an antitrust investigation in November 2010. The couple learned that they were not alone in their struggle, as other shopping websites had also been affected by Google’s practices.
In June 2017, the European Commission issued a record €2.4bn fine against Google, deeming the company had abused its market dominance by illegally promoting its own comparison shopping service while demoting those of competitors. The Raffs, who were in a hotel room near the commission building when the verdict was announced, focused their efforts on ensuring the EC enforced its decision.
Google spent seven years fighting the verdict, but in September 2024, Europe’s top court, the European Court of Justice, rejected the company’s appeals. Despite this victory, the couple believes that Google’s conduct remains anticompetitive, and the EC is currently investigating the company’s parent, Alphabet, under its new Digital Markets Act.
The Raffs are also pursuing a civil damages claim against Google, set to begin in the first half of 2026. However, their own website, Foundem, was forced to close in 2016 due to the prolonged legal battle. The couple admits that had they known the fight would last so many years, they might have made a different choice.
Read more at BBC News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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