The American company Google displayed its own hotel classification based on stars, leaving Internet users in doubt that it was the one officially established by the organization…

France: Google sanctioned for its "misleading classification" of hotels

AP - Matt Rourke

Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow

4 min

The American company Google displayed its own hotel classification based on stars, leaving Internet users in doubt that it was the one officially established by the Atout France organization.

Publicity

The firm was pinned down by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) for having established a misleading star-based classification of hotels.

Using an in-house algorithm, the

web

platform

ranked

hotel establishments according to its own assessment criteria and feedback from Internet users.

However, this type of classification, which is perfectly regulated in France, is carried out by the

Atout France

tourist development agency

, in charge of strengthening the positioning of the French destination internationally.

The attribution of these stars corresponds to more than 250 points to be respected, argued the agency.

This classification is based, among other things, on an evaluation of the equipment, the quality of the services, the respect for the environment or the management of the handicap in the establishments which welcome tourists.

Criteria that the American firm was careful not to take into account to award its stars.

Unions raised against Google

In 2019 and 2020, the professional hotel trade unions denounced "

the nature and loyalty of the information provided by the Google platform

" and they decided to take the case to court so that the American firm stops influencing choices. consumers according to its own criteria.

Finally, the Paris prosecutor's office got Google to agree to pay a transactional fine of 1.1 million euros based on the elements of the investigation carried out by the DGCCRF, specifies Romain Roussel, its chief. cabinet.

“

We have checked over

7,500 tourist establishments with our national investigation service

,” he says.

And we found that in about 30% of the cases, there was an unfavorable mismatch between the official ranking and the one displayed by Google.
We succeeded in getting the company to stop this rating practice from September 2019 and then discussions continued under the aegis of the Paris public prosecutor to finally settle this transactional fine. of 1.1 million euros, at the beginning of February 2021. A transactional fine is when a company pays an amount in exchange for the extinction of criminal proceedings for the acts with which it is accused.
However, it should be noted, with regard to the classification of tourist accommodation on a digital platform, that it was the first case of this type in France that we had to deal with,

”says Romain Roussel.

A transaction to avoid trial

The fine imposed on Google seems very modest compared to its financial resources.

But this criminal transaction seemed preferable in the eyes of the internet giant, arguing, no doubt, that a long and expensive trial with an uncertain outcome would ultimately be unfavorable.

Google has decided to change its rating system for tourist accommodation establishments.

Its new classification, still based on stars, now scrupulously follows that established by the French agency Atout France.

France: Google sanctioned for its "misleading classification" of hotels

France: Google sanctioned for its "misleading classification" of hotels

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