The German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) has placed Alphabet and its subsidiary Google under special scrutiny, using its new regulatory powers to declare large digital companies of “paramount significance across markets”. Google holds over 80 percent of the search and search advertising markets, giving the company a position of economic power to act across markets with insufficient control by competition authorities, the regulator said.
The company also has significant influence over other companies’ access to its users and advertising customers, for example via Google Search, YouTube, Android, Play Store or its advertising services, the regulator said. Google can gain a competitive edge in the market thanks to its large user base, advertising services and a large amount of user data collected across services and devices.
Last year, a new provision under the German Competition Act entered into force allowing the Bundeskartellamt to intervene earlier and more effectively against potentially abusive practices of large digital companies. Using the special powers, the regulator can prohibit anti-competitive practices by companies of paramount significance and hence subject to extra scrutiny.
The regulator has already started to look into Google’s processing of personal data and into Google News Showcase in more detail. Google said that it will not appeal the decision to declare the company a significant player, the competition authority said. The decision is valid for five years.
