Google to Appeal $541 Million Damages Order From German Court

By Edith Hancock

Alphabet's Google said it would appeal a Berlin court ruling ordering the search giant to pay a total of 465 million euros ($541 million) in damages to price comparison site Idealo over a competition dispute.

The ruling comes after a yearslong European Union antitrust case against Google, in which the European Commission said the company broke EU competition rules by allegedly favoring its own shopping results over those of rival comparison websites in its search results. In its ruling, the court said Google can appeal.

The commission--the EU's executive arm--fined Google in the case in 2017. The search giant changed its search engine results to comply with the ruling the same year, and ultimately lost its attempt to overturn it in 2024.

Google said on Friday that it disagreed with the Berlin court ruling and would appeal.

"The changes we made in 2017 are working well, with no intervention from the European Commission," Google said. "The number of price comparison sites in Europe using the remedy Shopping Unit has multiplied from seven then to 1,550 today," it said.

Idealo, which is owned by Axel Springer, said that it intended to pursue further legal action, saying that the amount awarded reflects only a fraction of what it considers the damage done.

"We will keep fighting--because abuse of dominance must have consequences and must not be a profitable business model that pays off despite fines and damages," Albrecht von Sonntag, Idealo's co-founder and a member of its advisory board, said.

Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 14, 2025 12:37 ET (17:37 GMT)