Turkey fines Google $75 million for violating competition law

Turkey’s antitrust regulator fined Google 2.61 billion liras ($75 million), saying the company provided an unfair advantage to its own supply-side platform at the expense of rivals.

The antitrust board said Google’s market dominance in the technology, which is used to automate sales of ad space, violated competition law. It named five companies in the decision, including Google International LLC, Google LLC, Google Ireland Ltd. and Alphabet Inc.

Google now has six months to comply with the law and provide conditions for third-party supply-side platforms, or SSPs, that are no less favorable than those it gives to its own. Failure to comply will result in further daily fines, the board said. Google can appeal the ruling.

The ruling comes after a US judge declared Google’s search engine an illegal monopoly and European regulators asked the tech giant for information on its advertising partnership with Meta earlier this year.

In June, the Turkish antitrust board fined Google 482 million liras over its hotel search service. Bloomberg