L’antitrust opens an investigation on Google todominant position busoin particular in relation toApp Weople. The Italian company, managed by Hoda, has developed a “data investment bank”. And he would have demonstrated the negative effects of Google’s practices to the Guarantor. Which, however, denies the offenses.
Google, antitrust investigates for abuse of dominant position
The Alphabet group, Google’s parent company, has the ability to operate a huge number of data through its widespread services (Gmail, Maps, Android). So much so that in 2021 this market allowed him to create a turnover of $ 257.6 billion. According to the antitrust this guarantees a dominant position, which it would have abused by preventing others from accessing this data.
According to the Guarantor: “The contested conduct determines a restriction of competition because it limits the ability of alternative operators to Google to develop innovative forms of use of personal data “. What would have happened with Hoda, which offers a service to ‘export’ their data to other alternative platforms to Google.
According to the antitrust, the ability to move their data allows users to fully exploit the potential of this information, focusing on market competition. Now the Guarantor, together with the Guardia di Finanza, is considering whether Google has actually suppressed this possibility by taking advantage of your position.
Google responds to the allegations by talking about possible privacy risks, arguing that there are open source and safer methods for these operations. “For nearly ten years, Google has offered people the ability to extract and transfer their data. They are tools designed to help people manage their personal information, and not to allow other companies or intermediaries to access more data to sell. This would mean putting the privacy of people, as well as encouraging fraudulent activity. For companies, there are already ways to increase the direct portability of data in their services, for example through the open sourc projecte Data Transfer Projectto which any organization is invited to participate “.
We will keep you updated on the development of the story.