Google sued for €2.1bn by Swedish price comparison firm

The lawsuit follows the conclusion of a legal ruling in the EU that established Google has breached antitrust laws by manipulating search results in favour of its own comparison-shopping services, PriceRunner said in a statement. Picture: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Google is being sued by Nordic price comparison provider PriceRunner for about 22 billion kronor (€2.1bn) at Sweden’s patent and market court.

The lawsuit follows the conclusion of a legal ruling in the EU that established Google has breached antitrust laws by manipulating search results in favour of its own comparison-shopping services, PriceRunner said in a statement.

“This is also a matter of survival for many European entrepreneurial companies and job opportunities within tech,” said Mikael Lindahl, chief executive of PriceRunner.

The Nordic company, which has agreed to be bought by Klarna Bank, also said it expects that the final damages of the lawsuit will be “significantly higher” because the violation is still ongoing.

Last month, the US tech giant said it had filed a challenge against the ruling at the EU Court of Justice “because we feel there are areas that require legal clarification” from the bloc’s top judges.

Bloomberg