Google ordered to pay $2B in Swedish antitrust case

Google has been ordered to pay nearly $2 billion by a Swedish court in a ruling issued today by the Patent and Market Court in Stockholm. The judgment comes in favor of Klarna Group Plc's Pricerunner unit, which accused the tech giant of abusing its dominant position in the comparison shopping services market. The court awarded damages for lost revenue due to Google's preferential treatment of its own comparison-shopping service over independent price-comparison services. While the court dismissed most of Pricerunner's claims, which sought 80 billion Swedish kronor ($8.2 billion), it still awarded damages for lost revenue. Judge Linda Kullberg noted that this is "without a doubt the largest claim that has been ordered in a Swedish competition case." Following the court's decision, Klarna's shares rose by 5.3% in premarket trading. The company argued that Google has been abusing its dominant position as a search engine for over a decade by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing portals. The litigation stems from a 2017 European Commission decision to fine Google 2.4 billion euros for illegally using its search dominance to favor its own shopping service. Last year, a Berlin court ordered Google to pay 573 million euros in damages to two German price comparison websites. Similar cases are still pending across Europe.