Internet search company files anti-trust suit against Google

18 February 2009

Google has been accused of throttling competition when TradeComet.com, a business-to-business search service that connects buyers of industrial products with suppliers, filed a suit in the US District Court accusing Google of eliminating competition using unfair trade practices that violated antitrust laws.

New York-based TradeComet.com filed the antitrust lawsuit against Google when the search giant refused to stop engaging in predatory conduct to block search traffic by imposing massive, unjustified price increases.

SourceTool.com, a subsidiary of TradeComet.com, operated a thriving global business-to-business search engine enabling buyers of industrial products to easily connect with suppliers. SourceTool.com focused on a specialised type of industrial search, which it positioned as a competitor to Google's general purpose search engine.

TradeComet.com alleges that within months of launching the site, it used to get 650,000 visits per day, where it was named a '2006 Rising Star of Specialised Search' by InfoCommerce and the 'Second Fastest Growing Internet Site in the World' by Comscore.

Google initially embraced its relationship with SourceTool.com, naming it Google's 'Site of the Week'; SourceTool.com was reinvesting approximately 80 per cent of its revenue by purchasing $500,000 per month or more in Google keywords.

''With no notice, Google changed from cheerleader to tyrant when it realised we were a competitive threat,'' said Dan Savage, founder and CEO of SourceTool.com and TradeComet.com