Klarna, the Stockholm-based payments platform, has secured a landmark victory after a Swedish court ordered Alphabet’s Google to pay approximately $1.5bn in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison business the FinTech firm owns.
The court found that Google had favoured its own shopping service within search results, to the detriment of PriceRunner’s business.
According to Reuters, the sum awarded, around 14.3 billion Swedish crowns, marks the largest damages figure ever handed down by a Swedish court in a competition dispute, although it falls well short of the 78 billion crowns PriceRunner had originally pursued, including accrued interest. Once interest is factored in, Klarna said the total award reaches $1.97bn.
The ruling arrives against a backdrop of intensifying scrutiny of major US technology companies across Europe, as regulators and courts increasingly examine how dominant platforms treat competing services within their ecosystems.
PriceRunner first brought the case against Google in 2022, seeking roughly €2.1bn in damages and alleging that the search giant had manipulated its results to disadvantage rival price comparison services.
The press release provides limited further detail on the day-to-day operations of Klarna or PriceRunner beyond their roles as, respectively, a payments platform and a price comparison business; a fuller company description could not be included as this information was not supplied.
Commenting on the scale of the award, the court’s alderman, Linda Kullberg, said the damages were “without a doubt the largest that has been awarded in a Swedish competition case.”
Copyright © 2026 FinTech Global
