Google: German agency warns about company proposal – 06/21/2023 – Market

Germany’s antitrust authority is seeking to block Google from rolling out its in-vehicle infotainment offering, including its Google Maps navigation service, as it believes it puts competition at risk in a future market.

“A certain number of Google’s practices in terms of granting service licenses for the in-vehicle infotainment system —offering informative and entertainment content at the same time— are not compatible with the new competition rules,” said the president of the body. , Andreas Mundt, in a statement released this Wednesday (21).

The federal agency sent a first legal assessment of the case to Alphabet, the parent company of the famous search engine, before adopting possible coercive measures.

Mundt specified that the regulator is “particularly critical” of Google offering only bundled infotainment services, as it reduces the chances that competitors will sell services that compete individually with the Internet giant.

Under the “Google Automotive Services” brand, the company proposes to car manufacturers to combine the Google Maps program, a version of its Google Play Store app store and the Google Assistant voice assistant in vehicles.

Bundling the services together could pose a “serious threat to competition” as Google could use them to expand its leadership position in “yet untapped” markets in autonomous and connected vehicles, the German official claimed.

Google may present its allegations soon, said the body, which has been investigating since June 2022 restrictions imposed by Google to combine Google Maps with third-party map services, especially used by logistics companies.

The Google ecosystem has been in the crosshairs of German antitrust regulators since early 2022, under new 2021 legislation that expands the body’s powers to monitor big tech companies.