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Google has been ordered to pay Klarna close to $2bn damages for lost revenue at the fintech’s price comparison site PriceRunner, after a Swedish court deemed the search engine privileged its own comparison service.
The payout, which includes nearly $500mn in accrued interest, represents the largest ever awarded in a Swedish antitrust case but marks a partial win for Klarna, which had sought “significantly higher” compensation of close to $8bn, the court said on Wednesday.
“PriceRunner is considered to have suffered damage as a result of Google having illegally favoured its price comparison service for many years,” the Stockholm Patent and Market Court said.
The case relates to Google’s actions in PriceRunner markets in the UK, Sweden and Denmark between 2008 and 2023. PriceRunner claimed Google represented its own price-comparison service more advantageously compared with rivals on its search results page.
“We don’t agree with the court’s decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options,” Google said.
Klarna, a Swedish fintech that primarily provides short-term, interest-free loans to customers, acquired PriceRunner in 2022 in a bid to build a shopping app and boost traffic to retailers. The company makes money on its interest-free loans by charging fees to retailers.
“This ruling supports a healthier, more competitive market for the way people compare products and services — and that is good for everyone who shops,” said Klarna.
PriceRunner had alleged that Google’s abuse of its dominant position in the search market continued until 2023, even after a 2017 European Commission ruling found that the US company had been showing its price comparison service more prominently than its competitors’ on its search engine.
The case is one of several instances of Google’s competitors alleging that it abused its dominant position in the search market to push out rivals. The EU’s Digital Markets Act, which came into force in 2022, was designed to prohibit Big Tech companies from “self-preferencing”.
Google said the changes it made on the back of the Commission ruling were “working successfully, generating growth and jobs for hundreds of comparison-shopping services [that] operate more than 1,500 websites across Europe”.
Klarna’s price comparison operations are key to its ambition to compete in agentic commerce, in which AI is anticipated to play a significant role in customers’ payments and shopping decisions. Payment companies are racing to develop capabilities that will allow them to participate in these transactions.
The Swedish fintech, which listed in the US in September last year, said its price comparison feature was available in 13 markets and powered its recently launched search feature in OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Shares in Klarna rose 10 per cent in pre-market trading on the back of the ruling.
Additional reporting by Tim Bradshaw
