A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay nearly $2 billion in damages to PriceRunner, a price comparison site owned by FinTech Klarna, after it was found to have favoured its own shopping service in search results.

The $1.97 billion award is the largest ever by a Swedish court in a competition case, though it is significantly below the close to $8 billion sought by Klarna, the court said on Wednesday. Nearly $500 million of the payment is accrued interest.

“PriceRunner is considered to have suffered damage as a result of Google having illegally favoured its price comparison service for many years,” the Stockholm Patent and Market Court said.

The case, brought by PriceRunner, centres on Google’s actions in the UK, Sweden and Denmark between 2008 and 2023. Google was accused of advantaging its own price-comparison service over rival platforms on its search results page.

A Google spokesperson said: “We don’t agree with the court’s decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options.”

Klarna, a FinTech primarily known for its buy-now-pay-later service, acquired PriceRunner in 2022 in what the Financial Times said was a bid to build a shopping app and boost traffic to retailers.

Dan Greaves, head of communications and policy at the company, said that “this ruling supports a healthier, more competitive market for the way people compare products and services, and that is good for everyone who shops.”

In 2017, the company was fined €2.4 billion by the EU for the same abuse, but PriceRunner’s case argued that the policy continued after this date.

Despite its victory, Klarna is unlikely to see the funds any time soon, as Google is expected to appeal the decision. “We can ⁠expect an appeal to take over a year and likely years,” Klarna's counsel Pontus Scherp told Reuters.

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