Google, which is involved in various legal proceedings on various issues, agreed to pay the French government 1.1 million euros for the creation of an unofficial hotel rating system.
The fact is that the Google Maps service does not use official data from the French department of tourism. Instead, the service uses its own rating system, thus breaking the law.
Back in 2019, French consumer and competition regulator DGCCRF received a string of complaints from users as Google used its own hotel rating system. In France, the law requires hotel ratings to be set by local tourism organizations in accordance with standards.
Google Maps uses a rating of 1 to 5 stars, which is in line with the international standard. However, Google’s score is based on customer reviews and other data. For this reason, when users use Google Maps to search, they cannot see the actual number of stars assigned to the hotel. Google’s own ratings are currently assigned to approximately 7,500 hotels worldwide.
After the French authorities launched an investigation, Google changed its approach in the country, but this did not save the company from punishment. However, 1.1 million euros is not too much for such a giant, which in 2018 was fined 4.34 billion euros for using the Android system to promote its own applications.
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