Google Slapped with Fine by Turkish Regulator Over Search Remedies

Google has been hit with a significant fine by Turkey's Competition Authority for failing to fully implement remedies ordered last year to restore competition in local search services and accommodation price comparison platforms.

In an April 2021 decision, the Competition Board ruled that Google abused its dominant position in general search services by favoring its own local search unit and hotel ads platform over rivals. Google was fined 296 million Turkish lira (around $16 million at current rates) for the antitrust violation.

As part of the decision, Google was required to take measures within six months to ensure competing local search and accommodation price comparison providers were not disadvantaged against Google's own services in general search results.

While Google proposed remedies that were initially accepted in March 2024, the Competition Board has now found that Google failed to properly implement the required changes for local hotel search results. As a result, in a May 9th ruling, the Competition Board imposed a new daily fine of 0.05% of Google's 2023 annual gross revenues in Turkey. The fine will continue accumulating until Google fully meets its obligations regarding hotel search on local services.

The size of the daily fine was not specified, but could potentially run into the millions of dollars per day given Google's revenues in the Turkish market. Google has not yet commented on the latest decision. The tech giant previously stated it would implement the required measures by mid-April of this year to resolve the competition concerns.

The Turkish case is one of several antitrust investigations and fines Google has faced in recent years over allegations it leveraged its dominance in search and advertising to stifle rivals. Regulators in the Europe Union and various countries have increasingly scrutinized Google's practices.

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