Swedish court delays PriceRunner verdict

A Swedish court has pushed back its ruling in PriceRunner’s damages case against Google, moving the judgment from April 15 to June 10. (businesswire.com) Klarna told investors on April 10 that Stockholm’s Patent and Market Court said it needed “additional time” to finish the judgment and gave no fuller explanation. PriceRunner is a Klarna subsidiary. (businesswire.com) The case is a damages claim, not the original competition ruling. PriceRunner sued Google in Stockholm in February 2022 for about 2.1 billion euros, or roughly 22 billion Swedish kronor at the time, saying Google’s search rankings hurt its business for years. (reuters.com) At the center is “self-preferencing,” the practice of a platform giving its own service better placement than rivals. European Union regulators said in 2017 that Google did that by favoring Google Shopping in search results and fined the company about 2.4 billion euros. (ec.europa.eu) That finding became harder for Google to unwind on September 10, 2024, when the Court of Justice of the European Union dismissed Google’s appeal and upheld the 2.4 billion euro fine. The Swedish damages case now turns on whether PriceRunner can show loss and how much money, if any, Google should pay. (curia.europa.eu) Klarna bought PriceRunner on April 4, 2022, after the lawsuit had already been filed. That means the claim now sits inside a public fintech company that has been updating investors on the court calendar. (klarna.com) Klarna said the outcome remains uncertain even if PriceRunner wins on liability, because any award could be appealed, shared with former PriceRunner shareholders and Klarna’s litigation funder, and reduced by taxes. The company also said the size of the claim should not be read as the likely payout. (businesswire.com) Google has long disputed claims that its shopping results illegally harmed rivals, while European regulators and complainants have argued the company used control of search to steer traffic to its own tools. The next marker in that fight is now June 10 in Stockholm, unless the court moves the date again. (curia.europa.eu)