India’s antitrust watchdog on Thursday imposed a Rs 136 crore fine on Google for “search bias”, in the latest regulatory setback for the world’s most popular internet search engine.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said Google, a unit of US firm Alphabet Inc, was abusing its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets.
“Google was found to be indulging in practices of search bias and by doing so, it causes harm to its competitors as well as to users,” the CCI said in its order.
The penalty amount of Rs 135.86 crore translates to 5% of the company’s average total revenue generated from India operations from its different business segments for the financial years 2013, 2014 and 2015, the order said.
The ruling has come on complaints filed by Matrimony.com and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) — back in 2012 — against Google LLC, Google India Pvt Ltd and Google Ireland Ltd.
The company will need to deposit the fine within 60 days, as said by the commission.