logo
episode-header-image
Oct 2024
37m 32s

Google: The Couple That Took On The Tech...

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

When Shivaun and Adam Raff's shopping and price comparison website all but vanished from Google's search results just days after launching, the pair began a gruelling legal battle that would end with a landmark judgement and the tech giant receiving a then record fine.

European regulators found the search engine guilty of abusing its market dominance by making its own shopping recommendations appear more prominently than rivals' in its search results. Google spent seven years appealing its €2.4bn fine, but eventually lost in September this year.

In their first interview since that verdict the Raffs tell Evan Davis the story behind their website - Foundem - and what they learned about big tech, regulation, and themselves during their almost 20-year fight.

Evan is joined by:

Shivaun and Adam Raff, co-founders, Foundem; Anne Witt, professor of law, EDHEC business school.

Credits:

President Barack speaking to Kara Swisher, from the technology news website Recode, in February 2015; Joaquín Almunia speaking at a European Commission press conference in February 2014; Margarethe Vestager speaking at a European Commission press conference in June 2017.

Production team:

Producer: Simon Tulett Researcher: Drew Hyndman Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Jonny Baker and Neil Churchill Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

(Picture: The Google logo displayed on a mobile phone and computer monitor. Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images/BBC)

Up next
Today
Chaos Management: Do Fewer Rules Make For Better Workplaces?
Can chaos ever be good for business? From Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies to Elon Musk’s disruptive leadership style, some of the world’s most high-profile figures seem to thrive on disorder. But does chaos drive innovation – or just confusion? In a world where start ... Show More
33m 35s
Oct 2
Spinouts: How Can Universities Turn Research Into Successful Businesses?
What happens when university research becomes a business? It’s called a spin-out and it’s built Silicon Valley, with Stanford University at the centre. In the UK, Oxford alone has launched more than 200 in the last 15 years. Whether it’s a new drug, software or material, brillian ... Show More
31m 4s
Sep 25
Direct to Consumer: A Better Way to Sell?
It's easier than ever to create a website for your business and talk directly with customers, but what are the pitfalls to avoid? Three business leaders discuss the pros and cons of selling 'D2C' with Evan Davis. Sellers no longer need to convince bigger retailers to carry their ... Show More
33m 27s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
Can we trust Google?
In August this year, a US court in Washington DC ruled that Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. This is just one of a number of lawsuits that have been filed against the big tech companies, as US antitr ... Show More
23 m
Aug 2024
Google’s Search Monopoly in Jeopardy: This New Antitrust Ruling Changes Everything
Has Google finally been dethroned? Greg Sterling of Near Media joins Gyi and Conrad to hash out the DOJ’s ruling on Google’s search monopoly.  -----So, is the government going to break Google up? Greg begins by explaining the nuances of what actually makes a monopoly illegal and ... Show More
41m 46s
Oct 2024
Sundar Pichai
Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined the company in 2004 as a product manager. Since then, he's had a meteoric rise through the ranks before becoming CEO of Google in 2015 and then CEO of parent company Alphabet in 2019. During his tenure, he has focused the company on its cloud compu ... Show More
24m 1s
Oct 6
Google: The AI Company
Google faces the greatest innovator's dilemma in history. They invented the Transformer — the breakthrough technology powering every modern AI system from ChatGPT to Claude (and, of course, Gemini). They employed nearly all the top AI talent: Ilya Sutskever, Geoff Hinton, Demis H ... Show More
4h 6m
Mar 2024
Lawsuits, fines and the tech at the heart of it all
When a company pushes false claims about using artificial intelligence in its  business, that’s known informally as “AI washing.” It can feel like everybody’s doing it, but the Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on the practice. Plus, is the government’s communic ... Show More
11m 55s
May 2025
Les géants de la tech vont-ils être démantelés par la justice américaine ?
« Il est temps de démanteler Google. » La revendication émane de J. D. Vance : il l’a écrite et postée sur son compte X, le 23 février 2024. Soit quasiment un an avant qu’il ne devienne le vice-président des Etats-Unis et que ne s’ouvre le nouveau procès de la firme américaine.Go ... Show More
22m 48s
Aug 2024
DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict
Today, I’m talking to Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general for antitrust at the United States Department of Justice. This is Jonathan’s second time on the show, and it’s a bit of an emergency podcast situation. On Monday, a federal court issued a monumental decision in ... Show More
47m 47s
Apr 2025
Meta's Day in Court, Restoring US Credibility
Watch Carol and Tim LIVE every day on YouTube: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF. Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in federal court Monday as the first witness in the US Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust trial seeking to break up Meta Platforms Inc. The company’s founder and chief executive ... Show More
34m 34s
Aug 2024
The trouble with deepfakes: Beyond control?
Anita was scrolling on Twitter when she found someone had made deepfake porn of her, without her permission. But that was just the start of her problems; she found it was difficult and expensive to get the deepfakes taken down and nigh-on impossible to prevent their proliferation ... Show More
22m 44s
Aug 2024
Sergey Brin: Googling billions
By founding Google, tech titan Sergey Brin helped shape the internet. He also got very, very rich, as his company Alphabet became one of the biggest in the world. BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng tell the story of the billionaire who partied on planes aft ... Show More
47m 27s