The US Department of Justice announced approval of Google's acquisition of ITA Software. The department found the acquisition would have reduced competition among providers of comparative flight search websites in the US and as a result imposed a number of conditions on the transaction. Under the proposed settlement, Google will be required to continue to license ITA's QPX software to airfare websites on commercially reasonable terms. QPX conducts searches for air travel fares, schedules and availability. Google will also be required to continue to fund research and development of that product at least at similar levels to what ITA has invested in recent years. Google will also be required to further develop and offer ITA's next generation InstaSearch product to travel websites, which will provide near instantaneous results to certain types of flexible airfare search queries. InstaSearch is currently not commercially available, but is in development by ITA. To prevent abuse of commercially sensitive information, Google will be required to implement firewall restrictions within the company that prevent unauthorized use of competitively sensitive information and data gathered from ITA's customers. Google is also prohibited from entering into agreements with airlines that would inappropriately restrict the airlines' right to share seat and booking class information with Google's competitors. Finally, the proposed settlement provides for a formal reporting mechanism for complainants if Google acts in an unfair manner. Google said it's formally committed to let ITA's customers extend their contracts into 2016. The company expects to close the acquisition soon.
