Alphabet Inc’s Google says that an India anti-trust ruling that found it to be guilty of search bias could cause “irreparable” harm and reputational loss to the company. To refresh your memory, Indian Antitrust watchdog has fined Google Rs.135.86 crores back in February.
The firm slammed Google for abusing its position in online web search and has also slammed the company for preventing its partners from using competing search services. However, Google opined that the ruling raised only “narrow concerns” and in its plea challenging, the company opined that the impact could be far greater. According to the plea, the order said: “Google required to change the way it conducts business in India on a lasting basis and the way it designs its search results page in India.”
Among the other things, Google was asked to stop imposing restrictions on its direct search agreements with other publishers. However, Google says that allowing the CCI’s findings implemented without proper scrutiny would cause the company ‘irreparable reputational loss” seeking a stay on the ruling. Google managed to get a partial stay on the ruling from India’s company law tribunal, allowing it to deposit only a small part of the imposed penalty.
This isn’t the first time Google is facing something like this, last year, the European Commission fined a record $2.8 billion fine on the company for demoting rival offerings. What makes this interesting is that matchmaking website Matrimony.com has appealed against CCI ruling claiming that the ruling isn’t sufficient. In a statement, in the plea, Google said: “If Google is restricted from entering into certain types of contracts while the appellate review is conducted, Google will be irreparably harmed.”