Google has allegedly filed an appeal at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) judgement that ruled the search giant guilty of “search bias.”
Two sources who were aware of this matter informed Reuters, and according to one of them, the appeal was filed on Monday.
The CCI had in February imposed a $20.95 million fine on Google for taking advantage of its dominance in the online search and advertising markets, stating in its 190-page judgement that, "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."
A CCI official called their judgement “robust” and said that the competition watchdog will be defending its verdict at NCLAT.
The commission had discovered that using search results from its database, Google had placed its commercial flight search function at a prominent position on the resulting search page.
The CCI ruling has brought to an end a probe started in 2012 due to complaints by matchmaking website Bharat Matrimony and Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS).
This judgement is the latest anti-trust setback to the search engine company. In a similar case last year, the European Commission had imposed a €2.4 billion fine on Google for being biased towards its own shopping service and demoting its rivals.