Polish court orders Google to stop favouring its own price-comparison service in search results

A Polish court has reportedly issued an order forbidding Google from favouring its own price comparison service, Google Shopping, for users in Poland at the expense of competing services.

The order has been put in place while the court considers a legal complaint by Ceneo, a leading Polish price comparison engine, against the US giant, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP), a Polish newspaper focused on legal affairs.

The decision has been welcomed by Ceneo, which is part of the same group as Allegro, a Polish e-commerce platform that is one of Europe’s largest. It claims that the outcome of the case could have repercussions at the European level. Google has so far not commented.

Ceneo rzuciło rękawice Google i w precedensowym pozwie zarzuca mu faworyzowanie w wynikach wyszukiwania porównywarki Google Shopping. Na razie polska firma zdobyła przy udziale UOKiK (amicus curiae) zabezpieczenie w postaci zakazu faworyzowania. https://t.co/nAuWsiKerM

— Sławek Wikariak (@S_Wikariak) April 16, 2024

Ceneo brought the case after claiming to have observed since last year four types of practices by Google that may unfairly disadvantage its rivals, reports DGP.

First, Ceneo claims that Google prioritises its own comparison service in search results. Second, that it redirects web traffic to Google Shopping at the expense of Ceneo. Third, that it impedes access to Ceneo by removing search results leading to it.

Finally, Ceneo claims that Google displays unauthorised adverts for Ceneo which, according to the Polish firm, could be used to obtain insights into the preferences of users looking for offers on Ceneo.

The Polish firm obtained an opinion from Poland’s competition authority, UOKiK, saying that “Google’s behaviour, if confirmed, could lead to a distortion of competition by giving a competitive advantage to this company without providing a level playing field to its competitors, including Ceneo”.

Polish e-commerce giant Allegro has expanded its brand to a third country in the region after launching a retail platform in Slovakia.

It did the same in the Czech Republic last year, with plans for Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia in the pipeline https://t.co/uMkhuSNDNk

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 19, 2024

“Despite a formal request to stop the violations, Google has not abandoned these practices, so we have been forced to assert our rights through legal proceedings,” Ceneo told the DGP.

The firm applied first of all for a temporary order barring Google from favouring its own shopping service – which has now been granted – as well as filing a lawsuit against Google over its alleged practices. The order is in place until the latter case is settled.

“The decision is a precedent on a European scale and may encourage comparison websites in other countries to follow Ceneo in the fight for a fair and competitive digital market,” the Polish firm told DGP. Google can be fined 50,000 zloty (€11,470) a day if it fails to comply, reports the newspaper.

Google’s press office told DGP that it would not comment on the Polish court’s decision because it “has not been officially delivered yet”.

Google will establish a cloud technology development centre in Warsaw that will be its largest in Europe.

„We continue to implement our vision of making Warsaw the cloud capital of Europe,” says the firm https://t.co/DYrJmUoZnE

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 25, 2021

The US search giant has also been in conflict with the European Union over the same issue.

In 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion – its largest ever antitrust fine – for breaching the bloc’s antitrust rules by using its search engine’s dominant market position to favour the firm’s own comparison shopping service.

In 2021, the European Court of Justice largely rejected Google’s appeal against that decision and upheld the fine. The US firm issued a further appeal, which remains pending.

Google’s $2.7 bln EU antitrust fine should be upheld, an adviser to the European Commission said. The court handed down the fine to the company in 2017 for using its own price comparison shopping service to gain an unfair advantage over European rivals https://t.co/a8IsjJbmOC pic.twitter.com/6j3jmXdwsF

— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) January 15, 2024

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.