It looks like Google’s issues surrounding antitrust violations have only begun, after Swedish price comparison platform PriceRunner has confirmed that it has issued the tech giant with a €2.4 billion lawsuit.

The move comes after Google lost its appeal regarding similar antitrust behaviour in November of last year, when an EU court ruled that the company was favouring its own price comparison tools over that of its competitors.

“The lawsuit follows the conclusion of the European General Court which established that Google has breached EU antitrust laws by manipulating search results in favour of their own comparison shopping services,” explained PriceRunner in a press statement.

“Google has thereby caused harm to European consumers who overpay when shopping online as well as to PriceRunner and other comparison shopping services. Since the violation is still ongoing the amount of damages increases every day, we expect the final damages amount of the lawsuit to be significantly higher,” it added.

Like many of the antitrust claims levelled against Google to date, PriceRunner argues that Google has a “monopoly” on the market due to the pervasiveness of its services, along with “abusing its dominant position” to its own advantage.

Given the aforementioned court ruling, it is hard to disagree with the points made by the Swedish outfit, but the size of the lawsuit is substantial, coming close to the fine imposed on Google last year. As such, it is unclear if it will have to fork out the full amount should it lose the case.

Either way, should PriceRunner prove successful, we would not be surprised to see other companies lodge similar lawsuits against the tech giant. 2022 could then end up being an expensive year for the company as far as litigation is concerned.

For now, Google is launching appeals as it seeks greater clarity on the matter from the EU courts.