German regulators are investigating whether Google is acting anti-competitively in the online marketplace and how it handles user data, increasing pressure on the search giant already facing similar U.S. investigations.
Bundeskartellamt, the German competition authority, announced Tuesday it is investigating Google’s operations in California, Ireland, and within its own borders under a new provision in German antitrust law that can stop large digital companies from engaging in monopolistic behavior in markets where they are not yet in a commanding position.
German authorities have launched similar investigations into the behavior of fellow tech giants Facebook and Amazon in recent months.
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“Due to the large number of digital services offered by Google, such as the Google search engine, YouTube, Google Maps, the Android operating system or the Chrome browser, the company could be considered to be of paramount significance for competition across markets,” Andreas Mundt, head of the German regulatory body, said in a statement.
Google is already being sued by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly using monopolistic tactics to maintain its top position in the online search market. The Justice Department is also looking into whether Google’s ad practices are unfairly hurting smaller rivals.
The German authority’s first investigation will explore whether Google is big enough to be penalized under the jurisdiction of the country’s new rules. The second investigation will examine Google’s data processing terms, which are often long, complex, and not easy for users to comprehend.
The regulator will focus on “whether consumers wishing to use Google’s services have sufficient choice as to how Google will use their data,” Mundt said.
Mundt said Google “enjoys a strategic advantage” because it has been successful in collecting user data, which it then uses for targeted advertising campaigns. German authorities will be looking into whether Google has abused that advantage to benefit its position in the online marketplace.
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Google said it would cooperate with the investigation, but the company pushed back against the notion that it was acting anti-competitively or infringing upon user privacy.
“People use Google because our services are helpful to them, not because they are forced to do so or because they can’t find alternatives,” said Google spokesman Ralf Bremer.
