A Swedish court has ordered Alphabet's Google to pay approximately $1.5 billion (14.3 billion Swedish crowns), plus interest, in antitrust damages to PriceRunner, a price comparison service owned by Klarna. The total, including interest, amounts to nearly $2 billion. The Stockholm Patent and Market Court found that Google illegally favored its own shopping comparison service in search results for many years, causing financial harm to PriceRunner.
The ruling is the largest of its kind in a Swedish competition case. This lawsuit follows a 2017 EU Commission ruling, which was later upheld, that found Google had breached antitrust laws by manipulating search results to benefit its own services. PriceRunner, which was acquired by Klarna in 2022, filed the suit seeking compensation for lost profits in the U.K., Sweden, and Denmark. Google has stated that it disagrees with the court's decision and is considering its legal options, including an appeal.