Turkish board fines Google 482 million liras over hotel searches

ANKARA

The Turkish competition watchdog has announced that it imposed a fine amounting to approximately 482 million Turkish Liras ($14.85 million) on Google for its non-compliance with obligations pertaining to hotel searches.

In a written statement on June 10, the Competition Authority stated that the penalty was levied due to Google's failure to address the board's concerns over fair competition with other local search engines.

Google created an advantage over competing local search and accommodation price comparison services, the statement said.

"Despite Google’s dominant position in the general search services market, it makes it difficult for competitors to operate and distorts competition in the local search services and accommodation price comparison services markets by preventing rival local search sites from entering its service.”

In May, the board announced that a fine of 0.0005 percent of daily revenue would be imposed until it completed some of its obligations that it did not fulfill, but the new fine was imposed instead.