Google Shopping investigated by the Justice Department over antitrust concerns

Google’s shopping comparison platform is being investigated by the US Justice Department over concerns its practices could squash rival companies.

The Justice Department is understood to have held numerous meetings with third parties to discuss how the internet search giant’s practices have allegedly prioritised its own goods and services over its rivals’.

READ MORE: “Dodgy retailers” in breach of UK consumer law allowed to top of Google Shopping search results

Antitrust enforcers in the Justice Department and lawmakers in the House and Senate are understood to have held lengthy talks with the chief executive of rival price comparison platform Kelkoo.

Kelkoo’s Richard Stables told officials how Google’s practices have allegedly hampered his company’s growth in Europe, adding that it could do the same to rival comparison sites, travel companies, local business and services in the US.

This comes as antitrust investigations into Google in the US gather pace and expand their scope, with this move signalling the Justice Departments interest in similar investigations which have taken place in the EU.

Google was fined €2.4 billion in 2017 by the EU and was ordered to stop promoting its own shopping search results over its competitors, however Stables has been campaigning for the punishments to be more severe.

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