Google says it will appeal Swedish $1.5 billion antitrust award

Google said on Wednesday that it would appeal a Swedish antitrust court order requiring it to pay about $1.5 billion to the PriceRunner site for illegally favouring its own price comparison service.

The July 1 award was one of the biggest made by a court in a European country. Google's media service said the company would appeal.

Klarna, the Swedish fintech group that owns PriceRunner, has said it will also appeal because it believes the award should be higher. Boudien Moerman, Klarna's chief legal officer, said Google's appeal had been expected. He said PriceRunner had filed an appeal because it believes the judgment does not fully reflect the damages suffered over many years, while he also said the court's decision on liability was clear.

Sweden's Patent and Market Court ruled that Google had abused its position for several years by favouring its own price comparison tool over rivals, including PriceRunner. Klarna bought PriceRunner in 2022.

The Swedish group had sought 80 billion kronor, or about $8.2 billion, in damages. The court awarded PriceRunner 14.3 billion kronor in damages and 400 million kronor in interest, about $1.5 billion in total.

PriceRunner began legal action in 2022 after the European Union's top court ruled that Google had breached EU competition law by manipulating search results to favour its own price comparison services.