Polish e-commerce Allegro's unit sues Alphabet for $568 million

By Mateusz Rabiega

GDANSK (Reuters) -A subsidiary of Polish e-commerce platform Allegro filed a lawsuit on Monday against Google owner Alphabet, Google Ireland and Google LLC, seeking 2.33 billion zlotys ($567.60 million) in damages, Allegro said in a statement.

The unit, Ceneo, is demanding compensation for losses it says it suffered due to Google's practices of preferring its own price comparison service in browser results, which Ceneo said damaged its business.

In an emailed statement, a Google spokesperson said the company disagreed with the lawsuit and was considering its options.

"Our Shopping remedy has been working successfully for several years and we continue to invest in formats that support brands, retailers and comparison shopping sites of all sizes across Poland and Europe," the statement said.

The requested reimbursement consists of 1.72 billion zlotys of losses sustained by Ceneo, as well as about 615 million in interest payments from 2013 until Nov. 29, 2024.

Ceneo, which provides online price comparison services, said it would also seek statutory interest on the 2.33 billion zlotys from the date of filing of the lawsuit until payment of damages.

The subsidiary said the lawsuit was connected to the $2.7 billion European Union antitrust fine imposed on Google to punish its use of its prominent position as the world's most popular internet search engine to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals in the price comparison shopping service market.

In an effort to end Google's dominance, the U.S. Department of Justice said Google must divest its Chrome browser and should not be allowed to re-enter the browser market for five years.

($1 = 4.1050 zlotys)

(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega;Additional reporting by Rafal W. Nowak;Editing by Alison Williams and Barbara Lewis)

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