14 DAY TRIAL // Google received a fine of 1.1 million Euros for the way it displayed hotel ratings in France as part of its search engine results page and Google Maps.
More specifically, Google used its very own hotel rating system in France, providing such information right on the search results page and in Google Maps whenever users looked for accommodation in a specific region.
However, French authorities are using a standardized rating system that’s being employed all over the country and which everybody must use in order to provide customers with accurate information on the facilities they would get from a hotel.
So technically, by not using the local and mandatory rating system, Google simply sidestepped this regulation, sticking with its very own algorithm that obviously provided some hotels with different scores than the ones indicated by French organizations.
Google has already revised its hotel rating system in France
The country’s consumer and competition agency, DGCCRF, started an investigation over the matter back in 2019, trying to determine if Google violated any laws with this approach.
And as it turns out, it did, so the company was fined 1.1 million Euros for using unofficial ratings for over 7,500 hotels across France.
In the meantime, however, the Mountain View-based search giant has already refined its rating system, giving up on the proprietary algorithm and instead using the scores indicated by the classification system used by the entire country. Of course, this doesn’t mean the company no longer has to pay the fine, but the good news is that anyone using Google to search for a hotel in France today should be able to see the same rating as on any other local booking service.
Google hasn’t provided any comments on the decision so far.