According to the court, Pricerunner has suffered damage as a result of Google illegally favoring its own price comparison service in the search engine's results for several years.
This is the largest damages award ever paid in a Swedish competition case, says Judge Linda Kullberg.
Based on EU Decision
The background to the case dates back to 2017, when the EU Commission ruled that Google had abused its dominant position. This decision was appealed by Google, but was definitively upheld by the EU Court of Justice in 2024.
Pricerunner, which has been owned by Klarna since 2022, submitted its lawsuit in 2022, citing the conclusions of the EU Commission. The main hearing in the Patent and Market Court was held in 2025. The judgment has been postponed twice during the spring due to the scope of the case before being made public on Wednesday.
Pricerunner's legal counsel, Pontus Scherp of Norburg & Scherp Advokatbyrå, previously commented on the basis of the proceedings:
This case is based on the fact that the EU Commission has determined that Google has violated competition law – then damages must be paid.
Claimed a Higher Amount
Pricerunner argued in its claim that consumers have been presented with Google's own comparison service instead of the most relevant search results, and that prices there have also been higher for customers.
The company's original claim was for around 78 billion Swedish krona, divided into 64 billion Swedish krona in damages and 14 billion Swedish krona in interest. The court ultimately settled on damages of approximately 14.3 billion Swedish krona. In addition to the damages themselves, the judgment establishes that Google is also liable to pay accrued interest, an amount totaling nearly 4.7 billion Swedish krona.
The total payment liability for Google's parent company Alphabet therefore amounts to approximately 19 billion Swedish krona (equivalent to nearly 2 billion US dollars). The damages and interest are distributed across the three markets, and the interest specifically consists of approximately 400 million Swedish krona, 250 million Danish krona, and 300 million British pounds.
Google has opposed the claims throughout the proceedings and emphasized that it has made changes to its systems that work well to promote competition.