New Delhi: Google, an online search giant, has filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ( NCLAT) challenging a judgement from India’s competition watchdog which had found it guilty of “search bias”, two sources aware of the matter told Reuters.
The appeal was filed on Monday, according to one of the sources.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI), in February has imposed a 136 crore rupees ($20.95 million) fine on Google, by saying that it was trying to abuse its dominance in online web search and online search advertising markets.
Google, which is the core unit of U.S. firm Alphabet Inc, did not comment to a Reuters request for comment.
According to a CCI official, the judgement was a “robust” one and that the competition watchdog has got plans to defend its verdict at the NCLAT.
“Google was found to be indulging in practices of search bias and by doing so, it causes harm to its competitors as well as to users,” the CCI said in its 190-page judgement.
The judgement by the watchdog is the latest antitrust setback for the world’s most popular search engine. The European Commission had last year, imposed a record 2.4 billion euro ($3 billion) fine over the company for its attempt to favour shopping service and demoting rival offerings. Google has appealed against the verdict.
The Commission has found that Google, through its search design had placed its own commercial flight search function at a prominent position over the search results page, proving as a disadvantage to the businesses trying to gain market access.
The ruling by the CCI had brought an end to a probe first started by the watchdog in 2012 over compaints filed by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not for profit organization, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).
The CCI ruling brought to an end a probe first started by the watchdog in 2012 on complaints filed by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and a not-for-profit organisation, Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).
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