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Tag: google flights

  • Google ordered to pay $665 million for anticompetitive practices in Germany

    Google may have to fork over 572 million euros, or nearly $665 million, to two German companies for “market abuse,” according to a recent ruling from a Berlin court. First reported by Reuters, the tech giant was ordered to pay approximately 465 million euros, or approximately $540 million, to Idealo and another 107 million euros, or roughly $124 million, to Producto, both of which are price comparison platforms based in Germany. According to the ruling, Google abused its dominant market position by favoring Google Shopping in its own search results.

    Idealo pursued legal action against Google, claiming that the Alphabet subsidiary was “self-preferencing” its own platforms, which led to unfair market advantages that hindered competitors. The company first demanded at least 3.3 billion euros, or more than $3.8 billion, in damages in February 2025. To counter, Google said it made changes in 2017 that allowed competing shopping platforms the same opportunity as Google Shopping to display ads through Google Search.

    Idealo said in a press release that it will continue the legal pressure on Google, claiming that “the amount awarded reflects only a fraction of the actual damage.” Albrecht von Sonntag, co-founder and member of Idealo’s advisory board, added in a press release that “abuse of dominance must have consequences and must not be a profitable business model that pays off despite fines and damages.”

    It’s not the first time Google has found itself in legal trouble in Europe. Beyond Google Shopping, Google was accused of favoring its own Google Flights and Google Hotels in search results, leading the European Union to threaten massive fines for violating its Digital Markets Act. A month prior, the European Commission fined Google nearly 3 billion euros, or more than $3.4 billion, for its anticompetitive practices in the advertising tech industry.

    Jackson Chen

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  • Google reportedly offers to tweak search results to avoid EU fine

    In order to avoid paying billions of dollars in fines for violating the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, Google is considering changing how search results are displayed, Reuters reports. EU regulators first took issue with Google’s Search and Play Store businesses in March 2025, claiming it favored its own services in search results over third-party options and prevented developers from informing customers of alternative ways of accessing apps.

    One of regulators main issues with Google Search was that Google appeared to favor results from services like Google Flights or Google Hotels over ones from “vertical search services,” providers that specialize in displaying search results from a specific industry, like Expedia or Hotels.com. To avoid fines, Google now wants Search to give VSS businesses equal treatment in results.

    “We will create the opportunity for each VSS to show its own box on Search. A VSS box will be populated with results from that VSS inventory,” Google said in a proposal viewed by Reuters. Results from Google’s own services will exist with the same formatting alongside, and the winning VSS box will be displayed in search results based on “objective and non-discriminatory criteria.” Importantly, search results from actual airlines and car rental companies won’t be excluded, they’ll also appear in a box “above or below the VSS box depending on the relevance to the user’s query.”

    Engadget has asked Google to comment on Reuters‘ report and to confirm the details of its proposed changes to Google Search. We’ll update this article if we hear back.

    Like Apple, Google faces significant scrutiny from the EU because of its monopolistic control over its various platforms and services. The threat of fines from the DMA has forced Apple to open up its products to third-party app stores, among a host of other changes. Clearly, Google is willing to tweak what once seemed like untouchable pillars of its business to avoid fines, too. Whether these proposed changes will be enough for the regulators remains to be seen, though.

    Ian Carlos Campbell

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  • Google Launches AI-Powered Flight Deals and Adds New Basic Economy Filter for Everyone

    Google Launches AI-Powered Flight Deals

    🔃 Update (Sep 09, 2025) – Google has now rolled out the Basic Economy filter on Google flights for everyone. It only works for flights within the United States (including territories) and Canada. It also doesn’t filter out Southwest Basic fares as of now. (HT: ThriftyTraveler)

    ➡️ Original article (Aug 14, 2025) – Google launched today its new, AI-powered search tool within Google Flights, called Flight Deals.

    Flight Deals is a feature designed for flexible travelers whose number one goal is saving money on their next trip. But instead of having to play around with different dates, destinations and filters to find the best deals, you can just describe when, where and how you’d like to travel. Flight Deals will take care of the rest and give you several options that match what you are looking for.

    To get started, you can search for something like “week-long trip this summer to a city with great food, nonstop only” or “5-day ski trip to a world-class resort with fresh powder.” Flight Deals will then show the best bargains available that match your search, including destinations you may have considered.

    Google says that Flight Deals will use its advanced AI to understand the nuances of what you’re looking for and identify matching destinations. Then, it’ll tap into real-time Google Flights data to quickly show you relevant, up-to-date options from hundreds of airlines and booking sites.

    Google Flight Deals is rolling out in beta to users in the US and Canada over the next week, no opt-in required. Some people might see the feature already, while others will get a message saying “this feature isn’t yet available”. You can check it out by going directly to the Flight Deals page, or via the top-left menu on Google Flights.

    Basic Economy Filter

    Google has also improved its original Google Flights search engine, which is here to stay.

    When searching for flights, now there’s a new option to exclude basic economy fares for trips in the U.S. and Canada. 

    DDG

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  • Southwest Airlines Flights Now Appear On Google Flights – Doctor Of Credit

    Southwest Airlines Flights Now Appear On Google Flights – Doctor Of Credit

    Big news broke today that Southwest Airlines flights now appear in Google Flights search results. The airline’s flights still do not appear on other third-party travel sites like Expedia or Priceline.

    The manual searching on Southwest was always a pain. It’s also much easier now to track price drops and rebook at the lower price by using the price tracking feature built into Google Flights. Big win for consumers.

    Chuck

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