The Federal Cartel Office has initiated proceedings against Google Germany and the parent company Alphabet. The authority wants to find out whether Google is using its dominant position in map services to make things difficult for other providers. The Google Maps platform offers access to various map services. These are used, for example, to integrate maps on third-party sites to show the locations of shops or hotels.
The background to the proceedings is the new powers of the Cartel Office, which it received from the legislator at the beginning of 2021. Since then, the authority has been able to ban large digital companies from practices that, after an audit, reveal that they impede competition. In order for a company to fall under the new regulation, it must first be established that it has “outstanding dominant importance” for competition in its area. At Google, the “dominant position” Determined in early 2022. In practice, the new regulation should primarily affect the large US tech companies, i.e. Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple.
Other map services disadvantaged?
Specifically, the Bundeskartellamt now wants to examine whether Google Maps is making its data available to other competitors in a sufficient and uncomplicated way. According to initial investigations by the Federal Cartel Office, Google is restricting in particular the possibility of combining Google’s map services with maps from third parties. According to the Cartel Office, this may hinder competition in the area of map services: “This concerns, for example, the possibility of integrating location data from Google Maps, the search function or Google Street View on non-Google maps. We will now examine whether Google can use its position of power in certain map services through this practice,” said the President of the Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, according to a press release.
In the next few weeks, the Cartel Office wants to first question customers and competitors of the Google Maps platform. Among them should also be representatives of the automotive industry. The extent to which Google regulates access to its services in navigation services for cars is also being examined. So-called bundling, for example, could be a problem. Due to its special market position, Google is obliged to make only individual parts of its functions available to competitors. Anyone who uses Google Maps navigation shouldn’t be forced to use Google’s voice recognition, for example.
A Google spokesman wrote to the SZ on request: “Developers and companies choose from a variety of options for the Google Maps platform because they recognize that it offers helpful, high-quality information for users Google Maps platform also use other map services – and many do as well.” Google is happy to answer any questions from the authority, the spokesman continued. In fact, the process is not new territory for Google. At the same time, similar reviews of Google’s conditions for data processing and the news service Google News Showcase are already running.
The Cartel Office is currently also examining the Facebook group Meta as well as Amazon and Apple. According to the authority, Meta also falls under the definition of “dominant market importance”, as it announced at the beginning of May. This test is still ongoing at Apple and Amazon. Last week, however, the antitrust authorities initiated proceedings against Apple in connection with new privacy protection features that allow users to prevent developers from tracking their activities across different apps and websites. The authority wants to check whether Apple could gain advantages with it.