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TradeComet.com Files Federal Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

TradeComet.com, which runs a business-to-business search site, says Google raised its prices for keywords by 10,000% and killed its business. The company filed suit today in New York City, claiming that Google violated antitrust laws by eliminating competition and choice.

TradeComet.com opened a Web site called SourceTool.com several years ago. The site was meant to help buyers of industrial products to connect with suppliers. According to TradeComet.com, SourceTool.com was initially quite successful, reaching 650,000 hits per day and earning accolades.

It was spending about $500,000 per month on Google keywords to help improve its business.

After a while, Google, it seems, figured out what SourceTool.com was all about.

The press release says:

"SourceTool.com offered a valuable service and TradeComet.com had a thriving business before Google decided to eliminate them as a competitor," said Rick Rule, chair of antitrust for Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP, and former head of the United States Justice Department Antitrust Division. "We believe this complaint has strong merit and represents a serious antitrust violation."

"With no notice, Google changed from cheerleader to tyrant when it realized we were a competitive threat," said Dan Savage, founder and CEO of SourceTool.com and TradeComet.com. "For example, Google raised my prices by 10,000 percent, which strangled our business, virtually overnight. Citing an ambiguous quality score determined by a secretive algorithm to justify the price increase, Google refused to consider reductions even after SourceTool.com invested the company's savings to make the changes that Google said would rectify the supposed problems. As a result of Google flexing its monopolistic muscle, SourceTool.com currently averages about one percent of the traffic it previously had and is no longer a competitively viable business."

TradeComet.com is seeking an unspecified amount of damages.

Google is no doubt a powerful company. But did Google break one of its main tenets: Don't Be Evil? A court will have to decide.

I also have to wonder, could this lawsuit start a cavalcade of similar claims against Google, which has surely put the hurt on other players? It's possible.

We'll keep our eyes and ears open to see how this case progresses.

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