German Regulator Says Google Automotive Services May Violate Antitrust Rules

A German regulator has told Google that its connected car package may violate antitrust rules.

The Federal Cartel Office said in a letter to the tech giant that the package offered to automakers by Google Automotive Services may harm competition by bundling together the company’s maps, app store and voice assistant, and that it may order the company to change the way they are bundled, the regulator said in a Wednesday (June 21) press release.

The regulator also said Google practices that incentivize automakers to install the services or set them as the default, or forbid them from combining its services with those of its competitors, may also violate antitrust rules, according to the release.

“Such default settings carry the risk of alternative services being hardly noticed and thus rarely used,” the Federal Cartel Office said in the release. “Google already successfully implemented such practices with mobile devices to expand and secure its market position.”

Google said that it will continue to work with the regulator to resolve these concerns, that thousands of apps are compatible with its offering and that there is “enormous competition in the connected car space,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

Google has also faced an investigation in the United States regarding its practice of bundling Google Maps with other Google software.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began examining whether this practice goes against anti-competition rules and focused in part on the Google Automotive Services package.

The tech giant has said that the integration of the apps provides the best user experience and that other voice assistants can function with Google Maps in some cases.

The global automotive software market is expected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15% between now and the end of the decade, as reported in “Reshaping Global Business With Connected Vehicles,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration.

With this software, businesses are looking to connect with in-car customers.

For example, energy giant Chevron has created an app that allows drivers with mobile accounts to pay for their fuel purchases inside their vehicles and earn rewards.