Foundem’s founders, Shivaun and Adam Raff, sued Google in 2010, accusing it of unfairly manipulating search results against their site.
In a landmark ruling, the court has ordered Google to pay £2 billion to the UK couple, concluding a lengthy 15-year dispute.
Foundem, the price comparison site the couple had dedicated themselves to creating from scratch, had just gone live.
After launching Foundem in 2006, Shivaun and Adam Raff found that Google’s spam filters prevented users from discovering their site, resulting in a steep decline in search rankings.
They couldn’t have imagined it then, but that day and the ones that followed would spell the beginning of the end for their company.
It meant that the couple’s site, which generated revenue solely from click-throughs to other websites, found it difficult to turn a profit.
As a consequence, Foundem faced substantial financial losses, leading to its eventual closure.
The Raffs claimed that Google’s search algorithm deliberately hindered their website, leading them to pursue legal action.
In a 2017 verdict, Google was ordered to pay £2 billion.
Even though Google sought to appeal, the European Court of Justice upheld the earlier verdict last September, requiring Google to pay £2 billion to the founders of Foundem.
According to the Raffs, when users searched for terms like “price comparison” or “shopping,” Foundem was not directly displayed on Google, which restricted access to the site.
As a result, Foundem’s revenue was significantly impacted, leading to its shutdown in 2016. Google’s alteration of search results had a detrimental effect on Foundem’s business.
Later, the couple discovered their site wasn’t the only one affected by Google’s practices – by 2017, when Google was found guilty and penalised, nearly 20 other companies, including Kelkoo, Trivago, and Yelp, had joined the case.