As the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks to end Google’s alleged monopoly of the search and ad sector with a lawsuit, Germany’s antitrust watchdog has initiated new steps to regulate the tech giant.
Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust regulator, has ruled that Google, a division of Alphabet, has “paramount significance across markets.” The decision puts the tech company one step closer to more regulation or even an outright ban, reported PYMNTS.
Last year, an amendment to the German Competition Act passed that can further regulate or even prohibit firms that authorities allege engage in anti-competitive practices. While the ruling was not a surprise, given Google’s dominance, the agency had to take this first step before adopting further measures against the company.
While an outright prohibition of Google is unlikely, the latest step by the German government could lead regulators to implement the most stringent rules against Google or any large digital company found to engage in anti-competitive practices.
Google’s troubles were not just limited to Germany this week. France’s data regulator fined Google and Facebook for failing to make refusing cookies as easy as it is to accept them, a violation of the French Data Protection Act.
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