Swedish court orders Google to pay $1.5 billion to Klarna in antitrust damages

By Supantha Mukherjee

STOCKHOLM, July 1 (Reuters) - A Swedish court on Wednesday ordered Alphabet's Google to pay about $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison business owned by payments platform Klarna, for favouring its own shopping service in search results.

The award, equivalent to around 14.3 billion Swedish crowns, comes amid growing scrutiny of U.S. Big Tech companies in Europe. It is the largest award by a Swedish court in a competition case, though well below the 78 billion crowns PriceRunner had sought, including accrued interest.

With interest, the award totals $1.97 billion, Klarna said.

"The damages are, despite the fact that PriceRunner has not achieved full success with its action, without a doubt the largest that has been awarded in a Swedish competition case," said Alderman Linda Kullberg, a court official.

PriceRunner sued Google in 2022, seeking about €2.1 billion in damages and alleging it manipulated search results.

OTHER CASES

When Google began giving its own comparison shopping service more prominent placement in search results in 2008, traffic to rival price comparison sites fell sharply.

In 2017, then-European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager fined Google for using its shopping comparison service to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals. Google lost an appeal against that decision in 2021.

Since then, a number of companies affected by Google's practices have filed damages claims against the world's largest search engine.

While PriceRunner has secured the largest award so far, a German court last year ordered Google to pay about €465 million to price comparison site Idealo and €107 million to another German platform, Producto.

Cases are also under way in Britain, where shopping comparison firms including Kelkoo and Foundem are seeking damages from Google. Italy's Moltiply Group, which operates price comparison website Trovaprezzi.it, is seeking €2.97 billion in damages.

WHAT NEXT?

A Google spokesperson said the company had made changes to its shopping advertisements since 2017 that were working well and supporting jobs and growth for comparison shopping services.

"We don't agree with the court's decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options," the spokesperson said.

PriceRunner, bought by Sweden's Klarna in 2022, sought compensation for profits it said it lost in Britain since 2008, and in Sweden and Denmark since 2013. 

While Klarna welcomed the ruling, the company is unlikely to receive any payment soon because Google can appeal.

"We can expect an appeal to take over a year and likely years," Klarna's counsel Pontus Scherp told Reuters.  

Alphabet shares were down around 0.4% in U.S. premarket trading, while Klarna shares were up about 7.5%.

($1 = 9.7291 Swedish crowns)

($1 = 0.8775 euros)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Supantha Mukherjee. Editing by Essi Lehto, Adam Jourdan and Mark Potter)