Europe Turns Antitrust Attention To Google Maps For Android

The antitrust investigation (or enforcement action) against Google in Europe is currently focused on shopping search. There’s an earlier stage but parallel investigation of Android now taking off.

Comments from regulators and European politicians suggest there’s a potentially long road ahead for Google and many investigations to come. Indeed, a more form local search investigation is probably next in line.

On the Android question, the EC is soliciting input from Google Maps competitors about its impact on their businesses. According to Bloomberg these include:

[W]hether Google Maps for phones has supplanted portable or in-car navigation devices, such as those produced by TomTom NV and the HERE unit of Nokia Oyj . . . Officials are also seeking data, such as user numbers, about downloaded or pre-installed mapping apps on devices, as well as costs mapmakers face to produce a mobile-ready app.

Without knowing sales figures or what the results of the inquiry will be, I can say with near certainty the answer is: smartphone based navigation has largely supplanted personal/in-car navigation devices for majorities of mobile users.

The current Android investigation and any subsequent action by the EC will probably net out where the Russians already have. Russian competition authorities recently ruled against Google barred pre-installed apps on Android devices, as a condition of OEM access to Google Play.

This will probably become the template for regulatory actions globally, including in the US ultimately. A reasonably close analogy is browser choice in the Microsoft-IE antitrust action years ago.

Google’s regulatory headache extends across the Atlantic too. Based largely on what’s happening elsewhere in the world, the US Federal Trade Commission opened or re-opened an investigation into whether Google’s control over the Android operating system unfairly disadvantages competitors, especially around pre-install requirements.

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