Shivaun and Adam Raff were very excited to launch their website, Foundem, in 2006. But what started as a cool new project quickly became a disaster they for sure never saw coming. A promising venture into the growing world of price comparison websites quickly spiraled into a 15-year battle against one of the most powerful companies in the world — Google. In this article, we’ll tell the incredible story of how they stood up to a tech giant and won.
How it all began?
The Raffs had left good-paying jobs to create Foundem, a website that allowed people to compare prices on a wide range of products, from clothes to flights.
They believed they were onto something big. But several months after their website went live, it disappeared from Google’s search results.
"We were watching how our pages ranked, and then we saw them all drop almost immediately," Adam recalls.
At first, they thought it was just a mistake. Maybe Google’s spam filters had flagged them by accident. But as time went on and their rankings didn’t improve, they started to realize something more serious might be happening.
Promising start and sudden setback
Foundem relied heavily on traffic from search engines to make money. The site earned comissions when users clicked on product listings and were directed to other websites. Without visibility on Google, the business couldn’t survive.
"If you're denied traffic, then you have no business," Adam explains.
The couple repeatedly reached out to Google, hoping the issue would be resolved. But despite their efforts, nothing changed. Their website continued to rank well on other search engines, but as Shivaun pointed out, "everyone's using Google." Without appearing on Google, Foundem couldn’t attract enough visitors to stay afloat.
By 2008, their suspicions deepened. That December, Foundem was named the best price comparison website in the UK by Channel 5’s The Gadget Show, leading to a flood of visitors that temporarily slowed down their site. But even with this recognition, they remained buried in Google’s search results.
“We reached out to Google again and said, ‘Look, it’s not helping your users if they can’t find us,’” Shivaun says. But the response was essentially, “Go away.”
That’s when they knew this wasn’t just a mistake. They were facing something much bigger.
Taking on Google
What began as a technical issue with Google’s search engine turned into a David-and-Goliath legal battle. The Raffs realized they weren’t the only ones affected by Google’s practices. Other companies, like Kelkoo, Trivago, and Yelp, were also being pushed down in search results while Google’s own services were being promoted.
In 2010, they took their case to regulators in the UK and the US, but it was in Brussels where things really took off. The European Commission (EC) launched an antitrust investigation to determine if Google was unfairly promoting its own services over competitors like Foundem.
After years of investigation, the European Commission ruled in 2017 that Google had indeed abused its dominance. The tech giant was fined a record €2.4 billion (about £2 billion) for unfairly favoring its own shopping service. It was a huge win for the Raffs and a major moment in the fight to regulate Big Tech.
Long legal battle
Even after the ruling, Google wasn’t ready to give up. The company spent the next seven years appealing the decision, claiming they had made changes to comply with the ruling. But in September 2024, the European Court of Justice upheld the original fine, confirming that Google had abused its power between 2008 and 2017.
A Google spokesperson said the ruling was "disappointing" and argued that the changes Google made in 2017 had worked well, generating billions of clicks for other comparison shopping services.
But for the Raffs, this was just one part of a larger battle. They believe Google’s behavior is still anti-competitive, and in 2024, the European Commission opened a new investigation into whether Google continues to favor its own products in search results.
The personal toll
While the Raffs eventually won their case, it came at a huge cost. After years of being hidden from Google’s search results, they were forced to shut down Foundem in 2016. The fight against Google had drained their business, and even though they won the battle, their company didn’t survive.
Now, they are pursuing a civil damages claim against Google, which is set to go to trial in 2026. Looking back, Adam admits that if they had known how long and difficult the fight would be, they might have made a different choice. "I think if we had known it was going to take as many years as it did, we might not have gone through with it."
But despite everything, the couple is proud of what they’ve done.
"We’ve always believed we could make a difference," Shivaun says. "And we really don’t like bullies."
Conclusion
Their 15-year battle against Google showed that even two determined people could stand up to a tech giant and win. While the fight isn’t over yet, Shivaun and Adam Raff have already made a lasting impact on the tech world.
