Turkey’s Competition Authority fined Google 196.7 million Turkish lira ($25.5 million) on Friday, accusing the company of abusing its market dominance in online searches.
The fine came as a result of an investigation upon a complaint that the tech giant abused its position to give an unfair edge to some companies.
The Competition Authority said Google Reklamcilik ve Pazarlama Ltd., Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Ltd. and Alphabet Inc. had made it difficult for companies to show up in searches if they did not generate advertising revenue for Google.
The Turkish authority said Google would have to ensure “active competition in the market” by taking remedial measures within six months. Google will have to present compliance measures and annual reports for five years.
The move comes as authorities in Europe and the US have also taken aim at Google’s dominance in online markets.
The US Justice Department on October 20 sued Google, claiming the company illegally maintained a monopoly over search and search-related activities.
In 2018 the European Commission slapped a 4.34 billion euro fine on Google for violating European antitrust rules on online advertising following an earlier fine of 2.4 billion euros in 2017.
In March 2019 the tech giant received another fine of 1.5 billion euros for abusing its dominance to stop websites from using brokers other than its own.
