Google has come under scrutiny by the Competition Authority for violating competition rules in Turkey. Accordingly, the Authority imposed a fine of $14 million on Google for providing unfair advantage over its competitors in hotel searches.
Competition Authority fines Google $14 million for hotel queries
In a 2021 investigation, the Competition Authority found that Google had abused its dominance in the general search engine market. In this context, it decided that it emphasized its own local search and accommodation price comparison services and prevented its competitors.
As a result of this decision, Google was imposed an administrative fine of 296 million TRY. It was also stated that a series of obligations should be imposed to eliminate violations.
During the review process, the company tried to convince the Competition Authority by presenting new design proposals for local search services. The Authority, on the other hand, evaluated Google’s proposals with a 3-month trial period.
However, Google did not include hotel searches in the new search design it launched in recent months. This meant that Google did not fully comply with the Competition Authority’s decisions. Google was then fined according to its daily revenue, effective from April 15, 2024.
On May 21, Google completed the deficiencies regarding hotel searches and ended the process. However, the Competition Authority stated that Google violated its obligations and did not include hotel queries in the new design. Google was fined a record 482 million TL in total for this violation.
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