Google Maps faces renewed scrutiny from DOJ’s antitrust legal professionals

The U.S. Justice Division is investigating Google’s dominance in mapping, reviving a thread of its long-running antitrust investigation into the quest large, in line with 3 folks acquainted with the probe.

Division legal professionals had been searching for data and reinterviewing doable witnesses, the folks mentioned, talking anonymously to speak about a pending investigation. The probe is desirous about how Alphabet Inc.’s Google bundles its products and services, and may just lead to a brand new antitrust criticism, they mentioned.

The advance displays the Justice Division is constant to scrutinize a few of Google’s most well liked merchandise, even after submitting two primary antitrust fits towards the corporate.

Google’s phrases of carrier require builders to make use of its maps and seek merchandise in combination. The restrictions save you firms from the usage of Google Puts knowledge—which give detailed data, footage and evaluations of explicit institutions—on rival mapping products and services.

Forcing firms to make use of one product with a view to achieve get right of entry to to a extra fashionable one, referred to as bundling, can violate antitrust legislation.

Google mentioned the constraints make sure a excellent person revel in, and that some 3rd events from which it licenses map knowledge limit how it’s used.

“Builders make a selection to make use of Google Maps Platform out of many choices as a result of they acknowledge it supplies useful, high quality data,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels mentioned. “They’re additionally loose to make use of different mapping products and services along with Google Maps Platform—and lots of do.”

Opponents have complained the constraints may just impair innovation in a lot of rising fields, similar to drones, supply and logistics, in addition to electrical and self reliant cars. At a February 2021 Area listening to, Garmin Ltd. and intently held Mapbox Inc. raised considerations about Google’s restrictions associated with maps.

A Justice Division spokesperson declined to remark.

The Justice Division started investigating Google in 2019 and has filed two antitrust proceedings—one desirous about seek and every other on its promoting era industry. The company sought data from the corporate associated with mapping as a part of the quest case, however in the long run opted to record a slender antitrust criticism that makes a speciality of Google’s contracts with browsers and smartphone makers that require its seek engine to be set because the default.

State legal professionals normal performed their very own investigations and filed 3 separate proceedings towards Google comparable to go looking, promoting era and the tech large’s keep watch over over apps downloaded on Android smartphones and gadgets.

The state seek case—led via Colorado and Nebraska—was once broader than the only filed via the Justice Division and integrated some allegations associated with mapping and Google’s bundling of goods to carmakers.

Germany’s antitrust authority opened an investigation into Google’s map restrictions final yr.

Politico previous reported at the revived probe.

2023 Bloomberg Information.
Allotted via Tribune Content material Company, LLC.