A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay around $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, the price comparison platform owned by Swedish payments company Klarna, after finding that the US tech giant breached competition law by favouring its own shopping comparison service.

The ruling, delivered by Sweden’s Patent and Market Court, comes amid intensifying scrutiny of American technology companies in Europe. It is the largest damages award ever made by a Swedish court in a competition case, although it falls well short of the sum PriceRunner had sought.

“The damages, even though PriceRunner was not entirely successful in its claim, are undoubtedly the largest ever awarded in a Swedish competition case,” Judge Linda Kullberg said.

PriceRunner sued Google in 2022, seeking billions in compensation over claims that the company had manipulated search results to give its own comparison shopping service an unfair advantage. The case followed a 2017 European Commission decision fining Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominance by promoting its own shopping comparison service over smaller European rivals. Google later lost its appeal against that EU fine.

A Google spokesperson said the company had made changes to its Shopping ads since 2017 and argued that those changes were working well, supporting jobs and growth for price comparison services.

“We disagree with the court’s decision, are reviewing it and will consider our legal options,” the spokesperson said.

PriceRunner, which was acquired by Klarna in 2022, sought compensation for profits it says it lost in the UK from 2008, and in Sweden and Denmark from 2013.

Klarna welcomed the ruling, although the decision can still be appealed. Its legal team was not immediately available for further comment.

Alphabet shares were down around 0.4% in pre-market trading in New York following the ruling, while Klarna shares rose by about 7.5%.