A Swedish court has ordered Alphabet-owned Google to pay approximately $1.5 billion in antitrust damages to price comparison platform PriceRunner, delivering one of Europe's largest competition-related awards against a major technology company.

The ruling, worth around 14.3 billion Swedish crowns, is the largest damages award ever issued in a Swedish competition case. It falls well short, however, of the 78 billion crowns PriceRunner had originally sought.

PriceRunner, owned by Klarna, sued Google in 2022. The platform alleged that Google unfairly prioritised its own shopping comparison service in search results, harming smaller rivals and reducing their revenue. The claim sought compensation for lost profits in Britain dating back to 2008, and in Sweden and Denmark since 2013.

The lawsuit followed Google's unsuccessful appeal against a €2.42 billion fine the European Commission imposed in 2017 over similar competition breaches. That fine, one of the Commission's landmark decisions against the search giant, centred on the same conduct now at issue in the Swedish damages action.

Google Reviews Legal Options

A Google spokesperson said the company disagreed with the decision and was considering its next legal steps. Google said it had already made changes to its shopping advertising system following the EU ruling and argued that those changes had supported competition and growth in the sector.

The award remains subject to appeal, leaving the final financial outcome uncertain pending further proceedings.

Klarna Welcomes Ruling

Klarna welcomed the decision. Market reaction was immediate: Alphabet shares dipped in pre-market trading in the United States, while Klarna shares rose about 7.5%.

What the Ruling Means for Practitioners

For competition lawyers, the judgment confirms that follow-on damages litigation in national courts can produce awards of a scale once associated only with regulatory fines. Claimants pursuing similar claims against platform operators will note the court's willingness to quantify harm across multiple jurisdictions and over long historical periods — back to 2008 for British losses. Defendants, meanwhile, will scrutinise the court's methodology, given the sharp reduction from the 78 billion crowns claimed to the 14.3 billion awarded. The prospect of further appeals means the ruling's precedential weight is not yet settled, but the size of the award alone will embolden other comparison services and marketplace operators that allege self-preferencing by dominant platforms.