In issue 28/2025 of the Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht (ZIP), a comment on the Google Shopping decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was published by Prof Dr David Bartlitz.
In its general online search, Google had presented the search results of its own price comparison service "Google Shopping" in a more visually appealing way - separated in boxes and enriched by product photos - and prioritised - as the first results displayed at the top - than the search results of competing price comparison services (e.g. Idealo in Germany). As a result, a large amount of traffic generated by internet users from the general Google online search was redirected away from the competitors' price comparison services and towards the Google price comparison service Google Shopping instead. The ECJ considered this favouring of Google's own services to be an abuse of a dominant position within the meaning of Art. 102 TFEU. In the newly published review essay, Prof Dr Bartlitz outlines the ECJ's reasoning under antitrust law.
The full text of the review essay is available free of charge from the university library.
