- Key insights: Courts in Sweden told Google to pay price comparison website and Klarna subsidiary PriceRunner nearly $2 billion after the court found that Google favored its own price comparison service.
- What's at stake: The lawsuit is linked to a 2.4 billion euro fine levied on Google by the European Commission in 2017 for similar antitrust claims, which set off a wave of follow-on lawsuits.
- Forward look: Google told American Banker it is evaluating its legal options. Analysts expect the tech giant to appeal.
PriceRunner, a Klarna subsidiary and comparison shopping website, scored a big win in its parent company's home court with a $2 billion judgement against Google for antitrust claims.
The lawsuit is linked to a 2.4 billion euro fine levied on Google by the
PriceRunner sued Google in February 2022 and initially sought $8 billion in compensation.
The courts ordered Google to pay just over 1 billion Swedish kronor, 675 million Danish kroner and 950 million British pounds. The tech giant was also ordered to pay accrued interest of approximately 400 million Swedish kronor, 250 million Danish kronor and 300 million British pounds. (Google's alleged antitrust violations affected PriceRunner's business in Sweden, Denmark and the U.K.)
All told, the judgement amounts to about $1.97 billion. By another measure, that figure represents about 25% of Klarna's market capitalization.
"When markets work well, everyone benefits," Klarna Head of Communications and Policy Dan Greaves said in a statement. "Consumers get higher quality at lower cost, companies stay focused on serving customers rather than defending position, and society is better off for it. This ruling supports a healthier, more competitive market for the way people compare products and services — and that is good for everyone who shops."
Judge Linda Kullberg said that the damages awarded were "undoubtedly the largest ever ordered in a Swedish competition case."
Google will still have the option to appeal the court's decision.
"We don't agree with the court's decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options," a Google spokesperson told American Banker in an email. "The changes we made to Shopping ads back in 2017 are working successfully, generating growth and jobs for hundreds of comparison shopping services who operate more than 1,500 websites across Europe."
The judgement was a win for Klarna, according to Keefe Bruyette and Woods analysts.
Klarna first acquired PriceRunner to add product discovery, price comparison and product reviews to its app, and has since expanded to 13 markets. The underlying database, which covers more than 100 million products and 500 million merchant listings, is now being used in Klarna's agentic commerce strategy as the engine in its Shopping Search app in ChatGPT.
"We view the news as positive for Klarna as the company could stand to benefit from a significant monetary windfall that approximates about 25% of its market capitalization, which could be used to fund buybacks or debt paydowns near-term," KBW analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said in a research note, but he also noted that he expects Google to appeal.
