The world of online shopping just got a little more dramatic. Italy’s Moltiply Group, the company behind the popular price comparison website Trovaprezzi.it, has announced they’re taking on tech giant Alphabet’s Google in court with a big lawsuit. And they’re not holding back—they’re seeking a whopping 2.97 billion euros (around $3.34 billion) in damages.

Moltiply argues that Google abused its dominant position in the market, a position that the EU’s highest court has already recognized. Specifically, they claim that Google’s actions between 2010 and 2017 stifled the growth of their subsidiary, 7Pixel. This would have been a consequence of Google allegedly unfairly promoting its own Google Shopping service.

According to reports in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Moltiply filed the lawsuit against Google in a Milan court. While details are still emerging, the core of the argument centers on Google allegedly giving its own shopping platform an unfair advantage over competitors like Trovaprezzi.it.

Unsurprisingly, Google isn’t taking these claims lightly. A spokesperson for the company stated that they “disagree strongly with these exorbitant private damages claims which disregard this successful and growing industry.”

Google Shopping has been in the EU’s sights for years

It’s worth remembering that the European Commission actually fined Google back in 2017 for the very same issue. At that time, Google gave its own price comparison service an unfair edge over smaller European rivals. Google even lost its final appeal against that 2.42 billion euro fine just last September.

Since the EU Commission’s decision in 2017, they’ve made changes that are “working as intended.” Or at least that’s what Google’s spokesperson states in the company’s response. The Mountain View giant also claims the number of comparison shopping sites in Europe using Google’s shopping features has jumped significantly.

This lawsuit is the latest chapter in the ongoing scrutiny of big tech companies and their market power. It will be interesting to see how this multi-billion-euro battle unfolds in the Italian courts and what implications it might have for the future of online shopping and fair competition.

This article first appeared on Android Headlines

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