Google loses 15-year-long legal battle to UK couple

Even after this final defeat, Google maintains that its current practices comply with the ruling.

In a remarkable David-and-Goliath tale, a British couple, Shivaun and Adam Raff, has successfully challenged tech giant Google, leading to a landmark ruling and a record Rs 21,824 crore fine for anti-competitive practices that affected their company, Foundem.

The couple's journey began in 2006 when they launched Foundem, a price-comparison website designed to simplify online shopping by comparing prices across different platforms. Foundem went live in June of that year, but its early momentum was abruptly stunted due to a penalty imposed by Google.

Even after this final defeat, Google maintains that its current practices comply with the ruling. Meanwhile, the EC is investigating Google's parent company, Alphabet, under the new Digital Markets Act, to examine whether its practices remain anti-competitive.