INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Last year, the European Commission imposed a record $3 billion fine on Google.
New Delhi/Mumbai: Google has appealed against a ruling by India's competition
watchdog that found it guilty of "search bias", while the website that brought the case also challenged the outcome, complaining the online
search giant had got off too lightly.In February, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Google 1.36 billion rupees ($21 million),
saying it was also abusing its dominance by giving its own online airline flight search product an unfair advantage over rivals.Google, the
firm Alphabet Inc, said on Tuesday it had filed an appeal."We disagree with aspects of the CCI's decision, so we have filed an appeal and
sought a stay on those findings," a Google spokesman told Reuters.After the February ruling, Google had referred to the issues raised by the
Commission as "narrow concerns"
It noted the order indicated that on the majority of issues the CCI examined, Google's conduct complied with Indian competition
laws.However, a lawyer with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday that Matrimony.com, the Indian matchmaking website that had filed the
case against Google was dissatisfied with the outcome and had lodged its own appeal.Matrimony.com, according to the lawyer, has appealed
against both the size of the fine, which it says is too small, and the CCI's ruling that neither Google's specialised search design or its
advertising service, AdWords, were breaking competition rules
Google did not comment on that development.A CCI official called the watchdog's judgement "robust" and said it would defend its ruling at
the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (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 had said in its 190-page ruling.Search bias refers to the propensity for a search
engine to favour certain websites over others in response to user queries, due to biases in their search algorithms or other factors
This can unduly hurt businesses that often rely on search engines to draw customers to their portals.The appeal filed by Matrimony.com will
be the latest anti-trust headache for Google, which remains mired in similar cases elsewhere in the world.Last year, the European Commission
imposed a record 2.4 billion euro ($3 billion) fine on the company for favouring its shopping service and demoting rival offerings
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
