Google is again being accused of favoring its own properties in search results, this time by the Competition Commission of India.
According to a report in The Economic Times, the Commission is accusing Google of ranking its own websites ahead of more deserving competitors
India’s Competition Commission also takes issue with the fact that Google’s paid listing appear ahead of organic listings. However, that complaint doesn’t hold as much ground since that’s more of a complaint against the principles of advertising.
In addition to the Competition Commission of India, companies like Microsoft, Facebook, and Nokia’s maps division have also filed similar concerns.
There are around 30 companies in total that have made private comments to the Commission on whether they believe Google is abusing its position as market leader.
In response, Google has said it believes it’s in compliance with India’s competition laws, and regulators around the world have not been able to find satisfactory evidence of any abuse.
“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.”
If Google doesn’t formally respond to the Commission by September 10th then there will be hearings into whether or not Google is violating antitrust regulations. A fine of 10% of Google’s income will be imposed if Google is found guilty of these accusations.
In the past, Google has made the bare minimum changes required to avoid legal action, in other cases the company has done nothing at all. We’ll find out over the next couple of weeks how Google decides to respond this time.
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