A Swedish court ordered Google to pay Klarna’s price-comparison subsidiary PriceRunner nearly $2B in damages, finding that Google favored its own comparison-shopping service over competitors, according to American Banker. The ruling ties back to the European Commission’s 2017 €2.4B fine against Google for abusing its search dominance, which set off a wave of follow-on lawsuits. Judge Linda Kullberg called the award undoubtedly the largest ever in a Swedish competition case, though it covers harm across Sweden, Denmark, and the UK. Google said it disagrees and is weighing its legal options, with analysts expecting an appeal, while the roughly $1.97B figure equals about 25% of Klarna’s market capitalization.
