Google May Finally Face a Showdown With Regulators Over Its Evolving Travel Tools
Photo Credit: Under a Flight Insights section of its metasearch product, Google has added new tools. For example, tap on Dates to see a calendar view of date combinations with the cheapest prices highlighted in green and the most expensive in red. Skift
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Google now prods its users to try to cut their travel costs by considering alternative airports and other tricks. Yet the incremental moves may not appease a European watchdog that may question its broader business practices in travel.
Is Google naughty or nice? In the past week, this perennially smoldering debate on the travel industry's conference circuit got fresh fuel.
On the "naughty" side, a Times of London article claimed that the European Commission had told one of its reporters that it is investigating Google's flights and hotel services business.
But the commission has not made an official announcement about investigating Google's travel practice. And Politico's Brussels site reported Tuesday that its sources say the commission has not yet decided whether to pursue a complaint against Google Flights.
An investigation would pose a threat to Google given that Europe's watchdog and regulatory body fined the U.S.-based search giant $2.7 billion, or 2.42 billion euro, in June for alleged "abuse of market dominance" for its not-dissimilar shopping ads for retail goods.
Google will appeal the case. In response to that shopping ruling, Google issued a statement: "When you use Google to search for produc
