Turkey fines Google $26 million for unfair competition in the advertising market

A few days ago, the Turkish anti-monopoly regulator issued a second fine for Google in 2020. At the beginning of the year, the regulator had fined Google $3.99 million.

The fine at the beginning of the year was mainly because the regulator believed that Google had abused its dominant market position and implemented aggressive competitive strategies to combat the development of competitors.

The new fine is due to Google’s unfair competition in the advertising market, and Google’s advertising network has a very high market share in Turkey and has a monopoly.

After investigations by the Turkish regulatory agency, it is found that if the company doesn’t pay Google for promotion, it is difficult for some companies’ websites or products to appear in the search results.

Simply put, Google seems to use some means to force companies to pay to appear in the search results because consumers will not find company product information through Google searches without paying.

Regulators believe that Google’s aggressive competition strategy violates fair competition clauses and that Google abuses its dominant position in the search engine market to suppress competitors.

As a punitive measure, the regulator issued a fine of 196.7 million Turkish lira (approximately US$26 million) to Google and required improvements to be completed within six months.

Via: Reuters