French govt fines Google USD 1m for misleading hotel rankings

Dhaka: The French government has fined Google EUR 1.1 million (USD 1.3 million) after the authorities came to the decision that the search engine displayed misleading rankings for French hotels.

Earlier, Google used the official source Atout France and input from other hotel-industry websites in its algorithm to rank hotels from one to five stars.

Following complaints from hoteliers about the tech company’s rankings, the French government’s fraud and competition agency launched an investigation in 2019 and 2020.

The agency said the aim was to monitor “the nature and fairness of the information provided by the platform” across 7,500 establishments.

Google agreed to pay the amount and said that it has now made the “necessary changes to only reflect the official French star rating for hotels on Google Maps and Search.”