Klarna, the Swedish payments platform that owns price comparison service PriceRunner, has secured a landmark damages ruling against Alphabet’s Google after a court in Sweden found the search giant had unfairly promoted its own shopping tool over rival services.
The Patent and Market Court in Sweden ordered Google to pay approximately $1.5bn, equivalent to roughly 14.3 billion Swedish crowns, for prioritising its own shopping comparison service in search rankings at PriceRunner’s expense. Once interest is factored in, Klarna said the total value of the award rises to $1.97bn, stated Reuters.
The sum represents the largest damages figure ever handed down by a Swedish court in a competition dispute, although it falls well short of the 78 billion crowns, including accumulated interest, that PriceRunner had originally pursued.
The case dates back to 2022, when PriceRunner filed suit against Google, seeking around €2.1bn in damages and accusing the company of distorting search results to disadvantage competing comparison platforms.
Klarna operates as a payments and shopping platform, with PriceRunner functioning as its price comparison arm, helping consumers compare products and prices across online retailers.
The ruling arrives at a moment when European regulators and courts are intensifying scrutiny of dominant US technology firms over how they treat competitors within their own platforms.
Swedish court alderman Linda Kullberg said the damages awarded were “without a doubt the largest that has been awarded in a Swedish competition case,” despite PriceRunner not securing the full sum it had sought.
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