German competition authority investigates Google’s market position and data usage

The German Bundeskartellamt has started two studies into Google that revolve around Google’s market position and whether users have enough choice in what the company does with user data. The authority can take measures to prevent Google from restricting competition.

In the first investigation, the Bundeskartellamt wants to investigate whether Google has ‘significant power’ in various markets. With this “significant power,” German law refers to companies that are so large in different markets that it is difficult to compete with them.

The watchdog president argues that this could be the case with Google as the company has an ecosystem spanning several markets. The ‘many services’ that Google offers, such as a search engine, YouTube, Maps, Android and Chrome, could make it difficult for other companies to compete with Google.

Since this year, German authorities have been able to impose measures against companies with significant market power to prevent them from engaging in anti-competitive practices. With the new law, the government wants authorities to be able to intervene earlier and more effectively.

For example, the authority could prevent Google from presenting its own products or services more attractively than competing services in, for example, digital shops. Such a company would also no longer be allowed to exclusively install its own services or software on devices. Another possible measure is that such a company should not prevent devices or services from other companies from interacting with its own products or services. Making such interoperability more difficult should then also no longer be made.

With the second investigation, the watchdog will look at the conditions that Google sets to be allowed to process data from users. The focus here is on whether users have enough choice when it comes to how Google handles the data. The authority says it is investigating whether the use of Google services depends on permission to process user data without users having ‘sufficient’ choice about whether, how and for what purpose Google uses the data. The Bundeskartellamt does not indicate when it expects to complete the investigations.

Google tells TechCrunch that it will cooperate with the investigation and that customers are not required to use Google services. “People choose Google products because they are helpful, not because they are forced or because there are no alternatives.” The company also says it gives people ‘simple’ checks to ‘limit’ the sharing of personal data.