France slapped Google with $1.34 million fine for inaccurate hotel rankings

Google France and Google Ireland were said to have been fined and agreed to pay €1.1 million or around $1.34 million. The penalty was imposed after investigations carried out by the French finance ministry and fraud regulators showed that Google’s hotel rankings could be inaccurate and only mislead the people.

Why Google was fined

As per ABC News, France’s Directorate-General for Competition and Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) launched a probe in 2019 and 2020 after the French government received so many complaints from the country’s hoteliers. They are complaining about Google's rankings that are apparently affecting their business since people usually ignore low-ranking establishments.

The hoteliers asked the government to check and regulate the “nature and fairness of the information provided by the platform,” covering around 7,500 hotels. As stated, after the investigation, the finance ministry of France found Google to be guilty of "misleading commercial practice."

The French consumer and finance stated that after the decision was made known to Google, the American tech company has made the necessary changes to avoid unfair and inaccurate ratings. It will not only be displaying the official star rating issued by the French government for hotels. The rating will also be visible on Google search and map.

The settlement between the French hoteliers and Google

As mentioned, France slapped Google with a €1.1 million fine as part of the settlement between the parties involved. The amount was approved by the public prosecutor in Paris, and Google already amended its practices to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Google will now only show the official hotel rating based on the official classification from the Atout France, the country's Tourism Development Agency. With this, the consumers will no longer be confused since they will only get the official ratings from the government and not based on Google’s pattern.

"This practice was particularly damaging for consumers, who were misled about the level of service they could expect when booking accommodation," Euronews quoted the agency as saying. "It was also detrimental to hoteliers whose establishments were wrongly presented as being lower than in the official Atout France classification."