{"id":3091,"date":"2021-02-16T13:51:21","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T13:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/?p=1339170"},"modified":"2021-02-16T13:51:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T13:51:21","slug":"zut-alors-france-spanks-google-over-misleading-hotel-ranking-algorithm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=3091","title":{"rendered":"Zut alors! France spanks Google over \u2018misleading\u2019 hotel ranking algorithm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/neural?filter_last=1&amp;fit=1280%2C640&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.tnwcdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fblogs.dir%2F1%2Ffiles%2F2021%2F02%2FUntitled-design-2021-02-16T133312.153.png&amp;signature=b378207b9aa06b809a36762afed5a800\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>France\u2019s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a&nbsp;\u20ac1.1 million ($1.3 million) fine over \u201cmisleading\u201d hotel rankings generated by the tech giant\u2019s algorithms.<\/p>\n<p>The Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) began to&nbsp;probe&nbsp;Google\u2019s classifications after hoteliers complained about their ratings.<\/p>\n<p>The investigation revealed that Google had&nbsp;replaced the rankings used by France\u2019s tourism agency (Atout France)&nbsp;with the company\u2019s own grading system.<\/p>\n<p>The DGCCRF found that the algorithmic classification had been applied to more than 7,500 establishments found in Google search results.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/shift\/2021\/02\/08\/polestar-batteries-blockchain\/\">How Polestar is using blockchain to increase transparency<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The regulator <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economie.gouv.fr\/dgccrf\/classement-trompeur-des-hebergements-touristiques-par-google-une-enquete-de-la-dgccrf-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> Google\u2019s use of a five-star rating scale was \u201chighly confusing\u201d for customers, as Atout France uses the same type of model.<\/p>\n<p>It called the classification system a \u201cmisleading commercial practice:\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"7\">\n<p>The practice&nbsp;was particularly damaging for consumers, who were misled about the service they could expect when booking accomodation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The watchdog said the practice was also detrimental to hoteliers who received worse rankings than in the Atout France classifications.<\/p>\n<p>The DGCCRF said Google has agreed to pay the fine and has reverted to toe official rankings used by France\u2019s tourist agency.<\/p>\n<p>The $1.3 million fine is negligible to Google, but the move to France\u2019s official star system should satisfy the country\u2019s hoteliers.<\/p>\n<p>As for tourists, the switch should offer reassurance that the ratings they see in Google Maps and Search will now reflect the quality of accommodation, rather than the results of algorithmic manipulation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-post-pubDate\"> Published February 16, 2021 \u2014 13:51 UTC <\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/neural\/2021\/02\/16\/zut-alors-france-spanks-google-over-misleading-hotel-ranking-algorithms\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France\u2019s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a&nbsp;\u20ac1.1 million ($1.3 million) fine over \u201cmisleading\u201d hotel rankings generated by the tech giant\u2019s algorithms. The Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Repression of Fraud&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}