Swedish PriceRunner sues Google for 2.1 billion euros
The Swedish price comparison site PriceRunner said on Monday that it is suing technology giant Google for 2.1 billion euros ($ 2.4 billion) for having marketed its own shopping comparisons in search results.
Europe has cracked down on Big Tech’s business practices in recent years, while the EU is moving forward with legislation to tighten regulation. American giants face fines and legal challenges in many European countries.
The Swedish technical startup said that they expected that “the final amount of damages for the trial would be significantly higher”, given that “the infringement is still ongoing.”
CEO Mikael Lindahl said the lawsuit was also a struggle “for consumers who have suffered enormously from Google’s breaches of competition law over the past fourteen years and still do today.”
The Swedish technology startup filed its lawsuit in the Patent and Market Court in Stockholm after the EU Court of Appeal ruled that Google “violated EU antitrust laws by manipulating search results in favor of their own comparison services.”
In November, the European Court of Justice set a fine of 2.4 billion euros that the European Commission had imposed on Google in 2017, saying that the results from Google’s own comparison service “were shown in a more conspicuous way”.
PriceRunner said it was seeking damages for profits lost in the UK since 2008 and in Sweden and Denmark since 2013.
PriceRunner said Google had a “monopoly-like position” in the European Economic Area (EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), with over 90 percent of the market share for Internet search engines.
The price comparison site is based in Sweden but also operates in Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom. It has previously been said that it plans to expand to more countries.
In November, Swedish fintech bought Klarna PriceRunner for an undisclosed sum, with media reports that set the price at over $ 1 billion.
jll / po / ach