France – Google fined 1.1 million Euros for misleading hotel rankings
Google Ireland and Google France have agreed to pay a 1.1 million euros ($1.34 million) fine after a probe found that Google’s hotel rankings could be misleading for consumers, France’s finance ministry and fraud watchdog said on Monday. The ministry and watchdog also said in a statement that Google has amended its hotel rankings practices since September 2019.
After receiving complaints from hoteliers about Google’s rankings, the French governments fraud and competition agency launched an investigation in 2019 and 2020. It said it was to monitor the nature and fairness of the information provided by the platform across 7,500 establishments.
Google said that it has now made the necessary changes to only reflect the official French star rating for hotels on Google Maps and Search.
