Google was fined 1.1 million euros after French authorities concluded the search engine displayed misleading rankings for French hotels.
The tech giant had been applying its own algorithmic system of ratings for hotels applied via its search engine and on Google Maps.
French government’s fraud and competition agency launched an investigation in 2019 and 2020. The probe revealed that the tech giant had replaced the standard classification system of the public tourist board (Atout France) with a star rating system powered by its own criteria and which it had applied to more than 7,500 establishments.
Google’s concept of a “five-star” hotel was not the same as the Atout France version and the consumer watchdog found that Google’s presentation for classifying tourist accommodation including identical use of the term “stars” on the same scale from 1 to 5 , to be confusing for consumers.
Google said that it has now made the necessary changes to only reflect the official French star rating for hotels on Google Maps and Search.