The Bundeskartellamt, the German competition authority, has defined a new status for Google, in accordance with its legislation dating from January 2021, and promises to toughen up the tone with the American digital giant.
In the opinion of the Bundeskartellamt, the competition authority in the Federal Republic of Germany, Google is a company “Of paramount importance in all markets for competition”. This press release, which simply defines the status of the company, refers it to “A position of economic power giving it leeway in markets insufficiently controlled by competition” and announces a future more rigorous treatment of the German antitrust against it. The Bundeskartellamt can thus prohibit companies of this size from practices that endanger competition.
“Since January 2021, we have a new instrument to supervise large digital companies, explains Andreas Mundt, chairman of the authority. After less than a year, we have now taken the first formal decision based on this provision and have determined that Google is of paramount importance in the market. […] We have already started to deal more intensively with the processing of personal data by Google and the subject of the Google News Showcase. At the same time, we are vigorously pursuing new proceedings against Amazon, Apple and Meta, formerly Facebook. ”
The Bundeskartellamt indicates that Google has a dominant position in the general search services market in Germany, with market shares of over 80%, and that it is the main provider of search-related advertising. In its digital ecosystem, Google has a significant influence on the access of other businesses to its users and advertisers. This is the case for Google search, but also YouTube, Android, the Play Store or its advertising services, and the giant can specify the rules and conditions for other companies in the market.
In general, Europe is toughening its tone against the tech giants. On Thursday, January 6, 2022, the CNIL imposed fines totaling 210 million euros against Google and Facebook for non-compliance with the GDPR. They are granted a period of three months for compliance.