Competition Commission of India slaps Rs 1 crore fine on Google

Google was penalised by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for "non cooperation" in the pending investigation.

NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has fined Google Rs 1 crore "for failure to comply with the directions given by the director general (DG) seeking information and documents". CCI is probing Google for anti-competitive and unfair practices.

"The order was passed on a reference made by the DG to CCI alleging inter alia non-cooperation by Google in the pending investigations," said a CCI spokesperson.

Earlier BharatMatrimony and Consumer Unity & Trust Society had complained to CCI that Google abused its dominant position on the web and in the web advertising market to push its own services and unfairly promote the services of companies that were willing to pay more money to it.

On Thursday, CCI also directed Google to cooperate with the investigation by providing information and documents that may be required by the DG.

Google said that it was disappointed with the CCI order.

"We're disappointed by this development. While we are confident that our products are compliant with competition law in India, we continue to cooperate fully with the CCI's extensive and ongoing investigation. We've not yet received this procedural order, but will review it fully once we have," said a Google spokesperson.

Recently Medianama, a website that reports on web content and e-commerce business in India, revealed that CCI was asking Indian web companies their views on Google's advertisement and business practices in the country. CCI has reportedly sent a questionnaire to various web entities, seeking their views on whether Google was unfairly promoting its own services or abusing its dominant position in the search and advertisement business to the detriment of other websites and portals in the country.

Concerns over Google's alleged anti-competitive practices are not new. In the US in 2013, Federal Trade Commission, which was looking into Google's business practices, closed its antitrust review after Google voluntarily agreed to make two changes to its search and AdWords business.

In February this year Google reached a preliminary settlement with European Commission, which was probing the company for unfair trade practices. The settlement includes Google agreeing to show results from at least three competitors each time it shows its own results for searches related to shopping and travel
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