By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM, July 1 (Reuters) - A Swedish court on Wednesday ordered Alphabet's Google to pay about $1.5 billion in antitrust damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison business owned by payments platform Klarna.
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.
"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. Three months earlier, Google had lost an appeal against a €2.42 billion EU antitrust fine imposed in 2017 over findings that it gave its own shopping comparison service an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals.
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 award remains subject to appeal. Klarna's legal team was not immediately available for comment.
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)
