Google accused of “rigging” results by Indian watchdog

Google faces allegations that it is “rigging” search results in India, with 30 rival companies submitting reports on its practices to an inquiry.

The Economic Times reports that India’s competition regulator has filed a report that alleges Google is rigging search results to favour its own services over its competitors.

The regulator is also annoyed that Google places paid links above others that may be more relevant, perhaps not realising that’s exactly how all the search engine’s advertising works.

The Economic Times claims that major companies like Microsoft, Facebook and Nokia’s maps department all made submissions to the inquiry, but these haven’t been made public.

Google issued a statement in response to this suit, which says the claims are common and unsubstantiated.

“Regulators and courts around the world, including in the US, Germany, Taiwan, Egypt and Brazil, have looking into and found no concerns on many of the issues raised in this report,” the statement says.

Similar allegations were tossed at Google in the US, and the company made a handful of voluntary commitments to changes to avoid them.

If Google is found guilty of violating these antitrust regulations it could be forced to alter its business practices in India and be fined up to 10% of its income.

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