Google has been fighting an on and off battle against antitrust watchdogs in different parts of the world. This time, the battleground is in India and the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has just fined the company for being uncooperative.
Due to delays in the submission of certain details requested by the CCI, Google has been fined $166,000. The CCI requests are part of a two year antitrust probe investigating alleged abuses by Google due to their dominant position in online advertising and search.
The antitrust probe against Google looking for evidence regarding allegations that the company has been giving preferential treatment for Google offerings in their search results.
"The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a fine of Rs. 1 Crore upon Google for failure to comply with the directions given by the Director General (DG) seeking information and documents," says the Indian government.
The probe started in 2012 after a complaint was filed against the Mountain View based search giant. The CCI director general sent a request for certain documents and information but Google failed to comply resulting in the fine. The commission is saying that Google was not cooperative in their pending investigations, which may hurt their standing in the current antitrust probe.
"CCI also directed Google to cooperate with the investigations by furnishing such other informations/ documents which may be required by the DG during the course of further investigations," the Indian government says. "CCI also directed Google to cooperate with the investigations by furnishing such other informations/ documents which may be required by the DG during the course of further investigations."
The fine is the latest notch in Google's long fight against antitrust watchdogs. Last year, the company also fought a similar battle in the European Union and the US concerning similar allegations of abuse.
While Google's problems in India are far from over, the company has managed to conclude their antitrust problems in Europe. The company has agreed to settle with competition regulators in Europe after a 5 year long fight. While the settlement has been drafted, it is still waiting for the approval of the European commission. The company did not get away unscathed as they were slapped with the most severe penalties the company has ever faced in any other antitrust investigation. However, Google was able to keep the commission from requiring a review of its highly top secret and proprietary search algorithm.
