The Competition Board decision dated 08.04.2021 and numbered 21-20/248-105 ruled that GOOGLE held dominant position in the general search services market, and that GOOGLE violated Article 6 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition by obstructing the activities of its rivals by means of favoring its own local search (Local Unit) and accommodation price comparison (GOOGLE Hotel Ads-GHA) services against those of the competitors in terms of positioning and display on the general search results page and excluding competing local search websites from the Local Unit, thereby distorting competition in the local search services and accommodation price comparison services, and the decision imposed an administrative fine of 296,084,899.49 TL on GOOGLE.

The Board also introduced certain obligations on GOOGLE to eliminate the infringement and re-establish effective competition in the market. In that framework, GOOGLE had to provide the competing local search services and competing accommodation price comparison services the necessary conditions to ensure that they were no longer at a disadvantage against GOOGLE’s own related services on the general search results page. To that end, GOOGLE presented a set of measures in order to eliminate the concerns indicated by the Board in the “local search services” market, including new designs for local search services. Later, the Board meeting of 21.03.2024 decided to implement these proposed measures presented by GOOGLE and monitor them for a period of 3 months. GOOGLE stated that the measures in question were fully launched as of 15.04.2024.

However, it is found that GOOGLE failed to implement the new designs that were supposed to be applied in “local search services” with respect to hotel inquiries, and therefore GOOGLE failed to meet the obligations imposed by the Board in “local search services”. Within that framework, in the Board meeting dated 09.05.2024 and numbered 21-20/248-105, it has been decided that GOOGLE failed to meet the obligation to “provide, within 6 (six) months following the notification of the reasoned decision, the conditions required to ensure that competing local search services and competing accommodation price comparison services are not at a disadvantage against GOOGLE’s own relevant services on the general search results page” with respect to the local search services concerning hotel inquiries and therefore a daily administrative fine has been imposed on GOOGLE under Article 17 of the Act no 4054 at %0,05 of its annual gross revenues in 2023, until the obligations concerned are fulfilled.