Alphabet’s Google has been ordered to cough up $1.97 billion after a Swedish court decided its shopping search antics were a bit too grabby.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the ruling hands Klarna a fat antitrust win after its price-comparison unit, PriceRunner, sued Google in Sweden in 2022. PriceRunner claimed the search giant was giving its price-comparison service the red-carpet treatment in search results, while rivals were left outside in the rain.
Klarna spokesman Dan Greaves said: “This ruling supports a healthier, more competitive market for the way people compare products and services.”
The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm ruled in favour of PriceRunner on part of its claim, while chucking out other parts. It was not a total win, but it was enough to leave Google nursing a very expensive bruise.
“We don’t agree with the court’s decision; we are reviewing and will consider our legal options,” a Google spokesperson said.
Google claimed it changed ads in Shopping, its price-comparison service, in 2017 and that those changes helped comparison shopping services grow across Europe.
Wednesday’s ruling is the latest European antitrust setback for Google’s price-comparison services. In 2024, the European Union’s top court upheld a $2.67 billion fine imposed by EU antitrust officials.
The EU said Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison-shopping service in search results and demoting competitors’ results. For a company built on helping people find things, it keeps getting into trouble for helping them find Google first.
After the EU levied the fine, a wave of European price-comparison services sued Google. Several of those cases are still rumbling through courts across Europe, so Google’s legal department may want to keep the coffee machine on and the apology-free statements handy.
