Google Under Fire For India Market Abuse

Google has been the largest search engine in the world for the longest period of time now. No matter how many search engines come and go, no one can suppress powers of this Internet giant. However, it has also found itself in the news for wrong reasons every now and then.

Internet entrepreneurs have been now constantly hitting out at Google’s growing power, as the company has been unfairly squeezing out rivals. It causing problems with customers and landing into problems with regulatory authorities was not a far-fetched scene. CCI has now charged Google India for rigging search results.

CCI has collected response from 30 companies including Flipkart, MMT, MapMyIndia, GroupM, etc. as part of the ongoing case against Google, which involves Bharat Matrimony. Google needs to file its response by Sep 10th.

It also has the option to seek more time to respond to the CCI report. It had been fined Rs.1 crore last year for delaying information the commission had sought.

This time, if the commission finds Google guilty, it can ask the company to make changes in the way it does business.

“As a result of Google policy, it is unavoidable for the trademark owners to participate and outbid third parties in the auction process for their ads to appear above others in response to search queries on their own trademark keywords,” said the report.

“We’re currently reviewing this report from the CCI’s ongoing investigation,” a Google spokesman said in an email to ET. “We continue to work closely with the CCI and remain confident that we comply fully with India’s competition laws. Regulators and courts around the world, including in the US, Germany, Taiwan, Egypt and Brazil, have looked into and found no concerns on many of the issues raised in this report.”. Read more..