By Joseph De Avila
A Swedish court ordered Alphabet's Google to pay Klarna $1.97 billion in damages after the buy now, pay later company won an antitrust case alleging that the search giant engaged in anticompetitive practices.
Klarna's price-comparison unit, PriceRunner, sued Google in 2022 in Swedish court. PriceRunner alleged Google was giving preferential treatment to its own price-comparison service in its search results.
"This ruling supports a healthier, more competitive market for the way people compare products and services," said Klarna spokesman Dan Greaves.
Shares of Klarna rose 5% in early trading Wednesday, while Google shares were up slightly.
The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm on Wednesday ruled in favor of PriceRunner on part of its claim, while dismissing other parts.
"We don't agree with the court's decision, we are reviewing and will consider our legal options," a Google spokesperson said.
Google said it made changes to ads in Shopping, the company's price-comparison service, in 2017 that have generated growth for comparison shopping services operating throughout Europe.
Wednesday's ruling marks the latest antitrust setback related to Google's price-comparison services in Europe. The European Union's top court in 2024 upheld a fine of $2.67 billion that EU antitrust officials imposed on Google. The EU said Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison-shopping service in search results and demoting those of competitors.
After the EU levied the fine, a wave of European price-comparison services sued Google. Several of these cases are pending throughout Europe.
Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com