In the Competition Board dated 08.04.2021 and numbered 21-20/248-105, it was found that GOOGLE held dominant position in the general search services market, and that GOOGLE violated Article 6 of the Act no 4054 since it obstructed the operations of its rivals by favoring its own local search (Local Unit) and accommodation price comparison (GOOGLE Hotel Ads-GHA) services in the general search results page in terms of positioning and display and preventing competing local search websites from entering the Local Unit, thereby distorting competition in the markets for local search services and accommodation price comparison services. As a result, GOOGLE was imposed an administrative fine of 296,084,899.49 TL. 

Additionally, the Board imposed certain obligations on GOOGLE in order to eliminate the violation and establish effective competition in the market. In that context, Google had to provide competing local search services and competing accommodation price comparison services the conditions under which they would no longer be at a disadvantage against Google’s own related services on the general search results page. Accordingly, with an aim to eliminate the concerns pointed out by the Board in the “local search services” market, GOOGLE submitted its proposed measures, which included new designs for local search services. Afterwards, in its meeting dated 21.03.2024, the Board decided to implement these proposed measured presented by Google and to monitor them for a period of 3 months.

However, it was established that GOOGLE failed to implement the new designs to be used in “local search services” with respect to hotel inquiries and therefore did not fully meet the obligations mentioned above. As a result, the Board decided to impose daily administrative fines on GOOGLE under Article 17 of the Act no 4054 on the Protection of Competition until the new designs were implemented with respect to the local search service related to hotel inquiries.

In the current situation, it is established that GOOGLE has implemented the designs it previously failed to apply with respect to the local search service for hotel inquiries and therefore completed the process on 21.05.2024. Accordingly, the Board has decided to terminate the daily administrative fines on the date of 21.05.2024, and to impose a fine of around 482 million TL on GOOGLE as a sanction for failing to implement the new designs with respect to local search services to hotel inquiries.