Meet the couple who just cost Google £2.4 billion in antitrust fines
In 2006, a mere eight years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin released Google on the world, a UK couple launched a comparison-shopping website called Foundem
The cost of justice: The European Court of Justice (the EU's Supreme Court) has upheld a lower court's ruling that Google must pay a £2.4 billion fine for market abuse. The decision came after a 15-year David and Goliath battle between the search giant and a little-known and less-remembered shopping website.
In 2006, a mere eight years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin released Google on the world, a UK couple launched a comparison-shopping website called "Foundem." Adam and Shivaun Raff had high expectations for their business because it offered more than other price-hunting sites.
In those days, websites that helped customers compare prices online were just getting their start, and they primarily specialized in one product, like airfare. One day, Adam had the idea of a website that compared prices of virtually any product the customer desired, and Foundem was formed.
The Raffs launched their website in 2006 and almost immediately noticed traffic to their page decreasing instead of increasing. The couple had both worked in the tech industry. Adam worked with supercomputers, and Shivaun had a career in software consulting. They knew something was wrong with their traffic results and knew where to look.
While Google was surfacing Foundem pages deep in results, other search engines listed it at the top or at least on the first page for queries like "price comparison" or "shopping." As it turned out, Google's search engine was hitting the website with automated spam penalties, which down-ranked their site as to be essentially invisible.
The couple thought it was a glitch with the algorithm. Google surely wouldn't penalize their website intentionally.
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