Japan seeks Google search fix

TOKYO — Japan’s antitrust watchdog said Monday that U.S. search giant Google must change its advertising search restrictions affecting Yahoo in Japan.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission said in a statement that its recent study of Google’s practices showed that it was undermining fair competition in the advertising market.

Yahoo Japan Corp., which has since merged with the Japanese social media platform Line, began keyword-targeted search advertising services using Google’s technology after the two companies formed a tie-up in 2010.

The Fair Trade Commission alleges that Google had imposed restrictions in its search advertising agreement with Yahoo Japan that for more than seven years hindered its ability to compete in targeted search ads.

A Fair Trade Commission investigation into whether that violated the Anti-Monopoly Law led Google to drop the restrictions.

Google said in an emailed statement that it has cooperated fully with the commission’s investigation and stressed that the commission has not found it had outright violated anti-monopoly laws. It promised to carry out the commission’s directives to offer “valuable” search functions to Japanese users and advertisers.

Line Yahoo declined comment.

Google will be under review for the next three years to ensure that it carries out needed changes, the commission said. It did not impose any fines or other penalties on Google, which remains popular in Japan.

The commission’s move follows another setback for Google in Japan. Last week, Japanese doctors filed a civil lawsuit against the company, demanding damages for what they claim are groundless derogatory and often false comments.

The Tokyo District Court suit demands $9,400 in damages for 63 medical professionals for reviews posted on Google Maps.

Google said in response that it’s working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”