Google's Irish and French subsidiaries have agreed to pay France a € 1.1 million fine for misleading hotel ratings, Euronews reported.

Google Ireland and Google France have made adjustments to their practice and, after reaching an agreement with the Paris prosecutor, agreed to pay a fine of € 1.1 million, the statement said. 

The proceedings were initiated after receiving numerous complaints from the owners and managers of hotels. 

Google had replaced the Atout France ranking with their own criteria, but had used an identical system of 1 to 5 "stars", which was "highly confusing" for customers.

"This practice was particularly damaging for consumers, who were misled about the level of service they could expect when booking accommodation," the authority stated.

"It was also detrimental to hoteliers whose establishments were wrongly presented as being lower than in the official Atout France classification."