After a seven year investigation, the European General Court upheld a $2.7B fine for Google’s breach of antitrust laws, for providing Google Shopping preference over competitors. Now the Swedish price comparison company, PriceRunner, has filed its own $2.4B claim against Google for cultivating anti-competitive behavior that allegedly disenfranchised PriceRunner’s business.
CNBC.com reports that PriceRunner views the claim against Google as part of a pattern of anticompetitive behavior that has caused significant consumer suffering and has stifled entrepreneurial innovation. Furthermore, PriceRunner suggests that Google has not complied with the European Union’s ruling on abusing its search engine’s dominant position.
PriceRunner was recently acquired by the fintech firm Klarna. Similar to purchasing a litigation claim, PriceRunner’s new owners want Google to pay for PriceRunner’s lost revenue in the United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark. The theme of reverse regulatory arbitrage is seemingly what PriceRunner hopes to profit from regarding this claim.