Google has once again landed in trouble with Turkish regulators—this time facing a ₺355 million ($8.87 million) fine for breaching terms imposed after a prior antitrust ruling.
The penalty, announced Thursday by the Turkish Competition Authority (TCA), is the latest signal that regulators are losing patience with what they see as continuous misconduct by the tech giant.
At the heart of the issue is Google’s failure to follow through on commitments made during the compliance phase of an earlier investigation.
Instead of correcting the anti-competitive behaviour flagged by Turkish authorities, Google rolled out new interface designs that allegedly deepened its market dominance, particularly in local search and digital advertising.
The TCA accused Google of deliberately introducing changes that “violated the obligations determined during the compliance process,” a move the agency said weakened competitors in search and ad markets rather than levelling the playing field.
But the financial penalty is just one piece of a bigger case. Turkish regulators have now opened a separate probe into Google’s Performance Max (PMAX) advertising campaigns.
According to the TCA, the company is exploiting its dominance in search-based ads to expand its grip across other advertising verticals. Authorities allege that Google combines user data across multiple platforms in a way that distorts competition and unfairly advantages its own services.
This is not Google’s first regulatory penalty in Turkey, and certainly not the largest. In December 2024, the tech company was fined $75 million (₺2.61 billion) for anti-competitive conduct that included limiting third-party access to YouTube ad inventory and tilting the ad ecosystem in its favour.
Earlier still, it was hit with a ₺482 million fine over hotel search results, followed by daily penalties until full compliance was verified.
Globally, the pattern is familiar. Regulatory agencies across jurisdictions are tightening their grip. In the United States, the Department of Justice has gone so far as to call for the forced separation of Google Chrome from the rest of the company’s services.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the European Commission is scrutinising Google’s advertising partnership with Meta, with regulators probing whether the alliance undermines market competition.
The Turkish authority’s act stresses the international momentum building against Big Tech monopolies. They say corrections must be genuine, and compliance is not optional.
