PriceRunner sues Google for 2 billion euros in damages

Google has to answer to the Swedish Patent and Market Court in Stockholm. The Swedish price comparison portal PriceRunner sees violations of competition law on the part of the search engine giant and is now demanding damages of two billion euros.

PriceRunner sues Google

As it says in the release from PriceRunner, Google sees a distortion of competition because Google favors its own comparison platform (Google Shopping) in the search results in the search.

Therefore one moves against the giant before the patent and market court in Stockholm and demands a compensation at a value of 22 billion Swedish crowns (SEK), which corresponds converted approximately to 2.1 billion euro.

The preferential treatment would put price search engines, including PriceRunner, at a disadvantage, while consumers would not always be able to obtain the lowest price. Google would therefore exploit its supremacy as market leader among search engines to position its own shopping results at the top.

The claim for damages of 22 billion Swedish kronor would correspond to the profit that PriceRunner has lost in the UK since 2008 and in Denmark and Sweden since 2013.

However, the price search engine assumes that the lawsuit against Google will last for years. The sum claimed as damages would accordingly continue to rise should Google not cease its distorting practices.

Google is repeatedly targeted

For exactly the same reasons, Google has to stand its ground again and again in court and has been doing so since 2017, with PriceRunner basing its lawsuit on a November 2021 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which had imposed a fine of 2.4 billion euros on Google in view of a decision by the EU Commission in June 2017.

Several EU antitrust proceedings were also sought against Google in January 2022. Due to an alleged violation of competition law, Google has been taking the matter to the highest court since late January 2022. The legal dispute also focuses on Google Shopping’s preference over price search engines.