Google 'trying to circumvent EU ruling' with price comparison sites run by ad agencies

The search giant was fined £2.1bn by the European Commission and ordered to give comparison shopping rivals "equal treatment".

By Rowland Manthorpe, technology correspondent

For the past four months, Google has been encouraging advertising agencies to create price comparison sites, which it presents in the Google Shopping box.

Google launched its Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) scheme in June 2018 in response to the European Commission's 2017 judgment, which fined the search giant a record-breaking €2.4 billion (£2.14bn), and ordered it to give its comparison shopping competitors "equal treatment".

Google approached advertising agencies and invited them to build comparison shopping sites.

It also offered substantial incentives to retailers to generate interest in the scheme.

The search firm then showed the names of the new sites under the images in its Google Shopping advertising insert, giving the impression of a thriving comparison shopping marketplace.

However, Google-certified operators told Sky News their sites were not designed to be used for shopping, with one calling it "an advertising system that looks like a price comparison".

As part of Google's CSS scheme, ad firm Shoptimised operates a site called High Street One, which at first glance resembles a traditional price comparison site.

Shoptimised co-founder, John Cave, said the site was never intended for consumers.

"High Street One is not designed for people to come on and shop," he said. "It's literally a website set up so people such as ourselves can pass on benefits to agencies and retailers."

Asked if that made the CSSs "fake", Mr Cave replied: "You could call them that, yes."

Richard Wyatt, managing director of another Google CSS partner, Onefeed, said his comparison shopping service was "a means of getting a rebate."

He added: "I don't think it's got anything to do with shopping sites for customers."

A Google spokesperson said: "Google Shopping complies with the European Commission's order - we give all comparison shopping services the same opportunity to show ads from merchants on Google's search results page as we give to Google shopping."

Since Google launched its comparison shopping service scheme, more than 90 sites have joined the scheme, with more than 60 in the United Kingdom.

Like High Street One, the majority are run by advertising firms, channelling advertisements from retailers into the Google Shopping box.

London-based agency Summit-Media, for instance, operates a CSS called Productcaster. Swedish search engine marketing firm Semtail runs a CSS called Shoptail.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing but consumer experts have raised concerns that many of the Google-certified sites do not make it clear to users how they make their money.

"If you have a comparison site that's run by an advertising agency patently using only its clients, that's not even slightly a comparison site in any sense," says Jasmine Birtles, founder of Money Magpie, who also criticised the sites' rudimentary functionality, calling it "a nonsense".