Klarna‑Google antitrust ruling delayed

A Swedish court was supposed to rule on April 15 in Klarna’s fight with Google, and now it says it needs nearly eight more weeks. The new date is June 10, 2026 at 11:00 Central European Time, and the court’s only public explanation was that it needed “additional time” to finish the judgment. (businesswire.com) This is not a side dispute for Klarna. The case was filed by PriceRunner, the shopping-comparison site Klarna bought in 2022, and PriceRunner is asking for about $8.3 billion from Google in what Klarna has described as the largest civil damages claim ever filed in a Swedish court. (businesswire.com, courthousenews.com) The argument goes back to a European Commission decision from 2017. Brussels said Google abused its dominance in search by placing its own comparison-shopping service more favorably in search results while pushing rival comparison sites lower down the page. (ec.europa.eu) That 2017 decision is no longer just a regulator’s theory. On September 10, 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed Google’s appeal and left in place a fine of about 2.4 billion euros for the shopping case. (curia.europa.eu) PriceRunner’s damages case is the private follow-on version of that public ruling. Instead of asking whether Google broke competition law in the abstract, the Swedish court is being asked how much money a specific rival lost because Google’s search engine steered users toward Google Shopping. (businesswire.com, seekingalpha.com) The trial itself already happened. Klarna said hearings in Stockholm ran from October 20 to December 19, 2025, so this delay comes after months of testimony, expert reports, and argument over both liability and the size of any damages award. (businesswire.com) Google’s search page is the front door for a huge share of online shopping traffic in Europe, which is why comparison sites care so much about ranking and placement. If a gatekeeper moves its own product to the top shelf and rivals to the back aisle, a merchant can lose clicks before price or quality even enters the picture. (ec.europa.eu, curia.europa.eu) That is why June 10 matters beyond Klarna. A large award would give other companies a road map for turning European Union antitrust wins into cash damages, while a narrow ruling or a loss would show how hard it still is to prove exactly what a platform’s ranking decisions cost a rival in dollars and cents. (curia.europa.eu, sidley.com) For now, the delay leaves one question hanging over merchants, comparison sites, and payments groups that buy traffic from dominant platforms. They already know Europe said Google crossed the line in shopping search; they still do not know what that line-crossing is worth in court when a private company sends the bill. (ec.europa.eu, businesswire.com)