Google ordered to pay €1.28 billion for antitrust violations in price comparison
A Swedish court has ruled that Google must pay €1.28 billion to price comparison site PriceRunner for illegally favoring its own shopping service in search results.
The Patent and Market Court in Stockholm on Wednesday ordered Google to pay approximately 14.3 billion Swedish kronor (€1.28 billion) in damages to Swedish price comparison website PriceRunner. The court found that Google had illegally promoted its own shopping comparison service in search results over several years, causing harm to PriceRunner.
PriceRunner filed the lawsuit in 2022, originally seeking 64 billion kronor in compensation plus an additional 14 billion kronor in interest. Although the court did not fully uphold the claim, it ruled that Google had violated EU competition rules. The decision follows a previous ruling by the European Union's General Court, which determined that Google had manipulated search results to favor its own comparison services.
The trial began in October last year. This ruling stands as one of the largest antitrust penalties against Google and underscores the EU's firm stance against abuse of market dominance.
