14 DAY TRIAL // Another country, another antitrust investigation against Google. This time around, the fine the Internet giant got slapped with doesn’t come from some European country, but rather from a place more to the East – India.
The antitrust investigation isn’t exactly new, either, since it was launched back in 2011, but the company seems to have been acting difficult when it comes to handing over information and documents.
So, the Indian government has slapped Google with a fine of 10 million rupee, adding up to some $166,000. Basically, it’s more of a symbolic fine, rather than an actual punishment for Google.
On the other hand, the Internet giant says that it has been cooperating with the investigation as best it could.
“We’re disappointed by this development. While we are confident that our products are compliant with competition law in India, we continue to cooperate fully with the Competition Commission of India’s extensive and ongoing investigation. We’ve not yet received this procedural order, but will review it fully once we have,” Google told The Next Web.
The Indian Competition Commission has been looking into Google’s alleged abuse of market power in online search, as well as search advertising. If found guilty, Google faces a fine that will certainly hurt even its budget - $5 billion.
The entire problem was born after the advocacy group CUTS International filed a complaint against Google in 2011.
The Internet giant has been dealing with similar situations in a lot of countries, including the United States and several European states. While the company got off the hook for these accusations back in the United States, the European Union didn’t give in that easily.
After several occasions when the proposal list was returned to Google for improvements, a couple of months ago, the European Union finally conceded to the company’s list, although there are still some steps left to be taken.
According to the agreement, Google is going to make some changes when dealing with European customers. For instance, AdSense terms will be modified to allow publishers to place ads from multiple providers.
Also, the AdWords API terms will make it easier for software providers to build tools for advertisers to manage campaigns across platforms.
Another change will affect users in the sense that they will start getting search results featuring more of Google’s rivals, where the case applies, of course.
Many of the companies that had an issue with Google’s business in Europe are still not happy with the agreement, but they’ll get a chance to express their problems in front of the European Commission soon.