How Google lose 15-year court case, pay couple $2.6 billion fine

“Google practically wipe us comot from Internet”.

Launch days dey both exciting and terrifying for many entrepreneurs, but di one wey Shivaun Raff and her husband, Adam experience bad well-well.

Na for June 2006 wey Foundem, di couple innovative price comparison website (wey dem bin sacrifice dia well-paying jobs to create from scratch), just go live.

Dem bin no know say dat day and di one for front, go be di beginning of di end for dia business.

Deny access

Foundem bin dey hit by one Google search penalty, wey one of di search engine automatic spam filters activate . e push di website down-down for di lists of search results for relevant queries like "price comparison" and "comparison shopping".

E see di couple website, wey dey charge fee wen customers click on dia product listings through to oda websites, struggle to make any money.

"We bin dey monitor our pages and how dem dey rank, and den we see as dem fall almost immediately, " Adam tok.

While di launch day for Foundem no go to plan, e lead dem to start sometin else – a 15-year legal battle wey end wit a record €2.4bn (£2bn) fine for Google, for abuse of dia market dominance.

Many pipo dey celebrate dis case as ogbonge moment for di global regulation of Big Tech.

Google bin spend seven years to fight dat verdict, wey dem issue for June 2017, but for September dis year Europe top court – di European Court of Justice – reject dia appeals.

Speaking to Radio 4 The Bottom Line for dia first interview since dat final verdict, Shivaun and Adam explain say at first, dem bin think say dia website start wahala na mistake.

“Initially we bin think say na collateral damage, onto say we by false positive dem go don detect us as spam,” Shivaun, 55 tok. “We just assume say we just need to raise am to di right place and dem go overturn am.”

"If dem deny you traffic, den you no get business," Adam, 58.

Di couple send Google plenty request for dem to lift di restriction, but more dan two years later notin don change and dem say dem no receive any response.

Meanwhile, dia website "ranking bin dey completely normally" for oda search engines, but dat no really matter, according to Shivaun, as "evri body dey use Google".

Di couple later discover say dia site no be di only one wey Google don give K-leg – by di time dem find di tech giant guilty and fine dem for 2017 na around 20 claimants dey ground, including Kelkoo, Trivago and Yelp.

Adam, wey build im career in supercomputing, say im "eye open" for Foundem wen im bin dey smoke cigarette outside di offices of im previous employer.

Dat time, price comparison websites neva grow like dat, and each company bin specialise for one particular product. But Foundem bin different becos e let customers compare a large range of products – from clothes to flights.

“No-one else bin dey anywhere close to dis,” Shivaun smile, she herself na software consultant bifor for several major global brands.

For dia 2017 judgement, di European Commission find out say Google illegally promote dia own comparison shopping service for search results, while dem demote those of dia competitors.

Ten years bifor dat, although – wen Foundem launch - Adam say im bin no get any reason to assume say Google being deliberately dey anti-competitive ova online shopping. "Dem bin no really be serious players,"im tok.

But by di end of 2008, di couple start to suspect foul play.

Na three weeks bifor Christmas and di pair receive a message wey warn dem say dia website suddenly don begin slow to load. Dem bin tink say na cyber-attack, "but actually di truth be say evri body just start to visit our website", Adam laugh.

Channel 5 The Gadget Show bin just name Foundem di best price comparison website for UK.

“And dat bin dey really important,” Shivaun explain, "becos come reach out to Google and say, look, surely e no dey benefit your users to make am impossible for dem to find us.

“And wetin we get from Google, no be a complete ignore, but basically ‘bog off’.”

"Na dat moment we know, OK, we need to fight," Adam tok.

Di couple go meet tori pipo, wit limited success, dem take dia case to regulators for UK, US, and Brussels.

Na di latter – wit di European Commission (EC) – wey di case eventually take off, wit di launch of di antitrust investigation for November 2010. Di couple first meeting wit di regulators take place for a portable cabin for Brussels.

“One of di tins dem say na if dis na systemic issue, why e be say na una be di first pipo wey dey see?” Shivaun tok.

“We say we no dey 100% sure, but we suspect say pipo dey fear, becos all businesses for internet essentially dey rely on Google for di lifeblood wey be dia traffic."

'We no like bullies'

Di couple dey dia hotel room for Brussels, only a few hundred yards from di commission building, wen competition commissioner Margarethe Vestager finally announce di verdict wey dem, and oda shopping websites, bin dey wait for.

But no popping of champagne corks. Dia focus don turn to making sure say di EC enforce dia decision.

"I guess e dey unfortunate for Google say dem do am to us," Shivaun tok. "Wen dem train us maybe wit di di kain mind say we fit make a difference, and we really no like bullies."

Even Google final defeat for di case last month no spell di end for di couple.

Dem believe say Google conduct still remain anti-competitive and di EC dey look into am.

For March dis year, under dia new Digital Markets Act, di commission open investigation into Google parent company, Alphabet, ova whether e dey kotinu to show preference to dia own goods and services for search results.

One tok-tok pesin for Google say: “Di CJEU [European Court of Justice] judgment [in 2024] only relate to how we showproduct results from 2008-2017.

"Di changes we make for 2017 to comply wit di European Commission Shopping decision don work successfully for more dan seven years, generating billions of clicks for more dan 800 comparison shopping services.

"For dis reason, we go kotinu to strongly contest di claims wey Foundem make and we go do so wen di case dey considered by di courts."

Di Raffs also dey pursue a civil damages claim against Google, wey dey due to begin in di first half of 2026.

But wen, or if, a final victory come for di couple it go likely be a Pyrrhic one – dem bin dey forced to close Foundem for 2016.

Di long fight against Google no be small tin for dem, too.

"I feel say if to say we know say e go take many years as e don turn out to be we for no make di same choice," Adam tok.