Swedish Court Slaps Google with $1.5 Billion Penalty in Landmark Case

A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay $1.5 billion in damages to Klarna-owned PriceRunner for favoring its shopping service in search results. This unprecedented ruling in Sweden marks a significant moment in ongoing legal challenges facing Big Tech in Europe. However, Google plans to appeal the decision.

On Wednesday, a landmark ruling by a Swedish court mandated Alphabet's Google to pay approximately $1.5 billion to PriceRunner, a price comparison business owned by Klarna, for its biased placement of its own shopping service in search results.

This groundbreaking award, the largest in Swedish competition history, underscores the mounting European scrutiny of U.S. Big Tech companies. Despite falling short of the $9 billion initially sought by PriceRunner, the compensation includes interest, totaling $1.97 billion. PriceRunner alleged manipulation of search results by Google since 2022.

Google's spokesperson expressed disagreement with the decision, noting post-2017 changes to its shopping ads aimed at supporting growth for such services. Although Klarna sees the ruling as a victory, it may face delays in compensation due to Google's expected appeal.