Google has been fined $21.2 million by Indian authorities over biased search

Google has been fined by Indian authorities over alleged search bias, the Indian regulators imposed 1.36 billion Rupees fine which is equivalent to $21.2 million. Authorities claim that Google is abusing its dominance in the country.

According to the details forwarded by Competition Commission of India, when users search for flight deals, it took them to Google’s own flight search page, due to this practice by Google rival businesses were blocked from a fair competition, However, a Google spokesperson said they are reviewing the concerns raised by CCI.

The ruling was passed over the complaint filed against Google in 2012 by a famous Indian matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and the consumer protection group. In a 190-page report, the CCI confirms that Google has deliberately abused its dominance causing harm to competitors as well as users.

However, Google said, “the company is always focused on enhancing users experience with innovation and evolving needs of the users.”

According to Google’s spokesperson, “the CCI has confirmed that in most cases Google is compliant with Indian competition laws”. The fine is only a 5% of Google annual revenues in India which may not hit the company too hard. The Alphabet Inc. announced $6.8 billion of quarterly profits last week.

As compared to other European countries the fine is considered only a grain of salt, European Commission in 2017 forced Google to pay $2.7 billion for promoting company’s own shopping service in the search results.