Copenhagen, 1 September 2023 (TDI): Jobindex, a leading online job-search platform in Denmark, has recently filed a lawsuit against the global tech giant Google, alleging both copyright infringement and abuse of market dominance.
This legal action follows growing concerns that Google’s specialized job-search feature, ‘Google for Jobs,’ is unfairly overshadowing other job-search services in its search results.
Introduced in Denmark on April 21, 2022, ‘Google for Jobs’ appears prominently in search results when users conduct job-related queries.
According to Jobindex, this strategic positioning gives Google an unfair advantage by pushing other job-search services, including Jobindex itself, further down the search results page.
Kaare Danielsen, the CEO of Jobindex, has expressed that “Google is leveraging its dominant position as a general search engine to give undue prominence to its own services and partners, thereby distorting the market to the disadvantage of both businesses and job seekers.”
This lawsuit mirrors a previous case where the European Court fined Google approximately 2.4 billion euros for favoring its own shopping services in its search results.
In light of this, Jobindex urges the European Commission to initiate a competition case against Google.
In addition to the concerns about market abuse, Jobindex has raised alarms about potential violations of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules related to personal data security.
Danielsen noted, “Google for Jobs collaborates with various partners to provide content. While some are reputable job providers, others raise questions about data integrity.”
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Furthermore, Jobindex alleges that some of its job listings, including those created by its own content creators, have been copied and displayed on ‘Google for Jobs’ without permission.
Danielsen added, “It’s not just about market distortion; it’s also a clear violation of copyright laws.”
In conclusion, Jobindex is awaiting a formal assessment from the relevant authorities and is looking forward to the necessary actions to ensure fair competition, transparency, and credibility in the online job search market.
