Google fined 14.3 billion SEK in Sweden over illegal promotion of its price-comparison tool

The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm delivered its judgment on Wednesday, fining Google for 14.3 billion Swedish kronor plus interest (€1.7bn) as it found that Klarna's PriceRunner suffered harm due to the tech giant illegally promoting its own price-comparison tool in search results at the expense of rivals.

The court said PriceRunner was considered to have been damaged by Google's "unlawful favouring" of its own service over many years.

The award is one of the largest of its kind in Sweden.

In a statement to investors, Klarna welcomed the decision, though the figure falls well short of what PriceRunner had sought.

The company had claimed roughly 80 billion kronor (€7.2bn) meaning the court dismissed the majority of the claim while still siding with PriceRunner on the substance of the accusation.

The case rests on findings that have already worked their way through the European legal system.

In 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion after concluding that it had abused its dominance in online search by giving illegal advantage to its own comparison-shopping service, a decision later upheld by the European Union's highest court in 2024.

PriceRunner, a Swedish site owned by Klarna, that lets shoppers compare prices across retailers, 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 the business the same year, folding its product-comparison technology into the Klarna app.

Google signals a fight

Google is expected to challenge the ruling.

Mathilde Méchin, the company's policy communications manager for Europe, reached out to Euronews to provide the following statement:

"We [Google] 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 1500 websites across Europe."

Google has consistently rejected the lawsuit, telling reporters when the trial opened that it strongly opposed the claim, and has maintained that it made substantial changes to its search results in 2017 to comply with the Commission's requirements.

Any damages award can be appealed to a higher court and the sum Klarna eventually recovers, if the decision stands, would be reduced by tax and by arrangements to share the proceeds with former PriceRunner shareholders and the outside funder that financed the litigation.

For Klarna, the judgment is nonetheless a symbolic and financial boost. The firm's shares rose 11.5% in pre-market trading on the news.

According to Dan Greaves, the company's head of communications and policy, the ruling supports a healthier and more competitive market for the way people compare products and prices.

The decision adds to Google's long-running antitrust troubles in Europe, where the Google Shopping case has become a landmark in the bloc's efforts to rein in the market power of the largest technology platforms.