Italian regulator opens investigation into Google to hinder competition

The Italian regulator ACGM has launched an investigation into Google for hindering interoperability with other services. It would be too difficult for users to share their data from Google services with other services and that would hinder competition.

The ACGM, together with a financial agency of the Italian government, already conducted an investigation on Wednesday at Google offices in Italy because of the investigation, says the supervisor. ACGM mentions Google Maps, Android and Gmail as services from which users find it difficult to extract data to share with other services.

The ACGM specifically mentions Weople, an Italian service that focuses, among other things, on data portability and the management of privacy rights in various services. It is now difficult to access Google services because the company does not make it possible to have settings managed by other services.

Google denies the allegations to Reuters. It points to its Takeout service, where users can download their own data. Accessing other services would, according to Google, “put users’ privacy at risk.” “It also encourages fraudulent activity. There are always ways for companies to improve direct portability of data in their services.”