Turkey fines Google $14.88 million for non-compliance with hotel search injunction

AGENCY: Turkey’s Competition Board slapped a fine of 482 million liras (approximately 14.88 million U.S. dollars) on the U.S. tech titan Google on Monday for its failure to adhere to an injunction concerning hotel search queries.

According to a statement by the regulatory authority, Google neglected to apply “precautionary measures recommended for hotel searches,” thereby obstructing rival local search engines on its platform and subverting fair competition.

This penalty comes in the wake of an investigation launched by the Competition Board against Google in March, which had imposed a daily fine equivalent to 0.05 percent of its 2023 revenue since mid-April until compliance with the injunction was achieved.

The decision follows a similar action taken by the watchdog in March, where it issued an interim injunction against the social media behemoth Meta, citing concerns over its potential abuse of dominance on platforms such as Threads and Instagram.