Klarna sees drop in complaints in Sweden for first time – Dagens Industri

The number of consumer complaints against payments provider Klarna Bank AB (publ) in Sweden decreased for the first time in 2020 despite a rise in e-commerce, Dagens Industri reported.

The Swedish newspaper collated data on complaints made by consumers through government agencies such as the National Board for Consumer Complaints, the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, the Swedish Consumer Agency and the country's Financial Supervisory Authority.

It found that the total number of complaints directed at Klarna fell to 557 in 2020 from 624 the year before. It follows a more than 40% hike in complaints from 2018 to 2019.

Klarna, which was founded in 2005 in Sweden, now handles about half of all e-commerce payments in the country, according to the report.

A common complaint against Klarna is about slow refunds when consumers return an item they purchased online or pay in the wrong amount, Johan Gustafsson, the company's communications director, told Dagens Industri.

In September 2020, Klarna announced it had raised $650 million in an equity funding round, valuing it at $10.65 billion. It followed comments by CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski in August of the same year that an IPO of the company in the U.S. could take place in one or two years' time.