Google fined €1.3 billion in Sweden antitrust ruling

• A Stockholm court fined Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) about 14.3 billion kronor (€1.3 billion) over alleged abuse of search dominance.
• The court found PriceRunner, owned by Klarna, was harmed by Google’s preferential treatment of its own price-comparison service.
• Klarna valued the ruling at about $1.97 billion, although the court rejected most of its original claim.

The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm delivered a judgment on Wednesday ordering Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to pay 14.3 billion Swedish kronor (€1.3 billion) in antitrust damages.

This ruling follows a long-standing legal dispute initiated by the price-comparison site PriceRunner, which alleged that the tech giant systematically pushed its own shopping services to the top of search results.

PriceRunner, which was acquired by the fintech firm Klarna, had originally sought roughly 80 billion kronor (€7.2 billion) in damages, meaning the court dismissed the majority of the financial claim.

Klarna stated to investors that it values the awarded sum, including accrued interest, at approximately $1.97 billion (€1.7 billion).

The case relies on findings that have already worked their way through the European legal system, specifically stemming from a 2017 European Commission decision.

This award marks one of the largest competition-related penalties of its kind ever issued in Sweden.