A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay nearly €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in damages to price comparison service PriceRunner for illegally favouring its own shopping comparison service over many years.
The court found that Google's conduct caused financial harm to PriceRunner, which has belonged to the Swedish payments company Klarna since 2022.
According to Swedish news agency TT, PriceRunner had originally sought almost €7 billion in damages.
Even so, the award represents the largest compensation ever granted in a Swedish competition case, Judge Linda Kullberg said in a statement.
The court also ordered Google to pay interest amounting to about €419 million, bringing the total sum to more than €1.7 billion.
The dispute stems from a 2017 decision by the European Commission, which fined Google roughly €2 billion for abusing its dominance in online search to favour its own shopping comparison service.
In its lawsuit, PriceRunner argued that the anti-competitive conduct continued until the end of 2023, according to TT. Google denied the allegation.
