Google fined Rs 1 crore by Competition Commission of India for non-cooperation

India’s antitrust agency has slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore on Google for not providing information and documents required in an investigation. According to statement issued by Competition Commission of India (CCI), “the order was passed on a reference made by the Director General (DG) to Competition Commission alleging inter alia non-cooperation by Google in the pending investigations.”   The enquiry for details from Google goes way back to 2012. The DG was investigating the information filed by M/s Matrimony private limited and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) against Google for “alleged abuse of market power in the relevant markets of online search and search advertising”.   The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has revealed that it had also directed Google to cooperate in the investigations by furnishing other information or documents its Director General may call for. However, the report claims that Google hasn’t been cooperating. Now, Google was penalised by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for “non cooperation” in the pending investigation.   A Google spokesperson said the company was “disappointed by this development.”   “While we are confident that our products are compliant with competition law in India, we continue to cooperate fully with the Competition Commission of India’s extensive and ongoing investigation. We have not yet received this procedural order, but will review it fully once we have," the Google spokesperson said in a statement.   Last year, CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla said the complaint was that the Google search engine favours platforms it wants to support.   “That is when you click on Google under a certain category, you will get the platforms where there is a tendency to put them in a certain order which may not be the fair and non-discriminatory manner.”   “So, what is the software and what is the algorithmic search? (That is) what the investigation team is looking at,” Chawla had said.   In its 2013 annual report filed with US regulator SEC in February, Google mentioned anti-trust cases in India and some other jurisdictions.   (With inputs from PTI)