Italy's Moltiply Group, operator of the popular price comparison website Trovaprezzi.it, announced on Friday it is suing Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google for 2.97 billion euros ($3.34 billion), alleging the tech giant abused its dominant market position.
The lawsuit, filed in a Milan court, claims Google's actions unfairly favored its own Google Shopping service, hindering the growth of Moltiply's subsidiary, 7Pixel, between 2010 and 2017.
Moltiply Group stated that its claim is based on Google's abuse of market dominance, a position previously recognized by the EU Court of Justice.
The European Commission had fined Google 2.42 billion euros in 2017 for using its search engine to gain an unfair advantage in the comparison shopping market.
Google lost its final appeal against this fine in September.
According to Moltiply, Google's alleged practices stifled the development of 7Pixel during the seven-year period, diverting traffic and business towards Google Shopping.
An Italian spokesperson for Google declined to comment immediately on the lawsuit.
The filing of this significant claim in an Italian court marks a new legal challenge for Google in Europe, highlighting the ongoing scrutiny of its business practices and their impact on competitors in the digital market.