7 years ago, Google bought airline data company ITA. The US Department of Justice cleared the deal with the condition that Google open the data to others for five years. This week, Google removed some companies’ access to ITA’s data, specifically, by discontinuing a service called QPX Express, a small business service. Google will continue to offer data to large customers.
The move has received criticism from entrepreneurs and antitrust watchdogs, who see it as further proof of Google parent company Alphabet’s outsized power.
On one website, Hacker News, in a message board frequented by startups, founders complained about the lack of an affordable, reliable data feed and the perils of relying on a tech giant to do business.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson said the company cancelled the small-business offering “given the low interest among our travel partners.”
Full Content: Wired
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