The Competition Authority took an important step today and imposed a daily fine on Google for not fulfilling its obligations.
The official statement made by the institution on this subject is as follows: transferred: “In the decision of the Competition Board dated 08.04.2021 and numbered 21-20/248-105, it was stated that GOOGLE is dominant in the general search services market and GOOGLE owns local search (Local Unit) and accommodation price comparison (GOOGLE Hotel Ads-GHA). Law No. 4054 on the Protection of Competition by providing services with an advantage over their competitors in terms of location and display on the general search results page and by preventing rival local search sites from entering the Local Unit, making the activities of competitors more difficult and disrupting competition in the markets of local search services and accommodation price comparison services. It was determined that Google violated Article 6, and an administrative fine of 296,084,899.49 million TL was imposed on GOOGLE. The Board also imposed certain obligations on GOOGLE to ensure that the violation is eliminated and effective competition is established in the market. In this context, GOOGLE must provide conditions for competing local search services and competing accommodation price comparison services so that they will not be disadvantaged by GOOGLE’s own relevant services on the general search results page. In this regard, GOOGLE has presented precautionary proposals that include new designs for local search services in order to eliminate the concerns pointed out by the Board in the “local search services” market. Subsequently, at the Board’s meeting dated 21.03.2024, it was decided to implement these precautionary suggestions presented by GOOGLE and monitor them for a period of 3 months. It has been stated by GOOGLE that these measures have been fully released as of 15.04.2024. However, it has been determined that GOOGLE has not implemented the new designs that were decided to be implemented in terms of “local search services” in terms of hotel queries, and therefore GOOGLE has not fulfilled the obligations imposed by the Board regarding “local search services”.
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In this context, at the Board’s meeting dated 09.05.2024; It is stipulated in GOOGLE’s Board decision dated 08.04.2021 and numbered 21-20/248-105, “Within 6 (six) months from the notification of the reasoned decision, competing local search services and competing accommodation price comparison services will be included in the general search results page of GOOGLE.” It has not fulfilled its obligation in terms of local search services related to hotel inquiries, “to provide conditions in which they will not be disadvantaged from their relevant services”, and therefore, within the scope of Article 17 of Law No. 4054, GOOGLE will be transferred to GOOGLE as of 15.04.2024 and to be carried out until these obligations are fulfilled in 2023. It has been decided to impose an administrative fine of five ten thousandths of their gross income for each day.”