The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm ruled on Wednesday that Google must pay 14.3 billion Swedish kronor (approximately €1.7 billion) plus interest to PriceRunner, the price-comparison service owned by Swedish fintech group Klarna. The court found that the technology giant had illegally favoured its own shopping service in search results for years, causing substantial harm to PriceRunner.
The judgment is one of the largest damages awards in Swedish legal history. While the court sided with PriceRunner on the substance of the claim, it dismissed the majority of the company's original demand for roughly 80 billion kronor (€7.2 billion). Klarna welcomed the decision in a statement to investors, calling it a step toward a healthier and more competitive market for product comparison.
Rooted in EU Antitrust Precedent
The case builds on earlier findings by the European Commission. In 2017, the Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominance in online search by giving illegal advantage to its own comparison-shopping service. That decision was upheld by the European Union's highest court in 2024. PriceRunner filed its damages claim in Stockholm in 2022, arguing that Google's conduct had demoted it in search rankings and inflicted sustained commercial harm over more than a decade. Klarna acquired PriceRunner the same year, integrating its product-comparison technology into the Klarna app.
The ruling underscores the ongoing tension between European competition authorities and major tech platforms. The European Commission's former competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, had spearheaded the initial case against Google, and the Stockholm court's decision reinforces the legal framework established at the EU level.
Google has signalled it will fight the ruling. Mathilde Méchin, the company's policy communications manager for Europe, stated: "We don't agree with the court's decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options. The changes we made to shopping ads back in 2017 are working successfully, generating growth and jobs for hundreds of comparison shopping services who operate more than 1,500 websites across Europe."
Google has consistently rejected the lawsuit, maintaining that its 2017 adjustments to search results complied with the Commission's requirements. Any damages award can be appealed to a higher court, and the final sum Klarna recovers, if the decision stands, would be reduced by tax and by arrangements to share proceeds with former PriceRunner shareholders and the outside funder that financed the litigation.
For Klarna, the judgment provides both symbolic and financial momentum. The company's shares rose 11.5% in pre-market trading following the announcement. Dan Greaves, Klarna's head of communications and policy, said the ruling supports "a healthier and more competitive market for the way people compare products and prices."
The case is part of a broader European push to regulate digital markets. Similar actions have targeted other tech giants, such as the UK regulator's proposal to break Apple and Google's app payment duopoly, as reported in our earlier coverage. Meanwhile, the EU continues to tighten laws on child sexual abuse, including longer prosecution windows and AI provisions, as detailed in this article.
The Stockholm ruling may also influence other pending damages claims across Europe, as companies seek compensation for alleged antitrust violations by dominant platforms. The European legal system has increasingly become a venue for such disputes, reflecting a continent-wide effort to ensure fair competition in digital markets.
