Google has been fined 1. 1.1 million for ranking hotels on search engines. Google Ireland and Google France are finedMentioned Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF).

Penalty for Google and its hotel rankings

The Ministry of Finance and the Fraud Ministry are cracking down on claims that Google’s ranking of hotels is misleading to consumers, hence a fine of 1 1.1 million. This ranking led to investigations following complaints from hotel owners in 2019 and 2020.

Comparing the rankings of more than 7,500 companies, in a significant number of cases, the current official official classification in France, released by Atta France, ranges from one to five stars. Instead of the Atta France classification, Google provided a classification based on its own criteria. Its presentation and the use of the term stars to classify tourist accommodation have caused much confusion.

The suppression of fraud suggests that this method is also harmful to hoteliers who have been misrepresented by lower-class establishments than the class official classification of France.

Google therefore agreed to pay a fine of 1. 1.1 million for the classification of the hotels. In addition, it uses the class official classification published by Atta France since September 2019.