German antitrust watchdog warns Google over car infotainment
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Germany's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday criticised Google's in-car infotainment system, saying the bundling of services within it could give the US tech giant an unfair advantage over competitors.
The Federal Cartel Office said it had warned Google's parent company Alphabet in a preliminary legal assessment that it "intends to prohibit" various "anti-competitive practices" linked to Google Automative Services (GAS).
The GAS platform, licensed to vehicle manufacturers, comprises Google Maps, a version of the Google Play app store and the Google voice assistant.
"In particular, we take a critical view of Google offering its services for infotainment systems as a bundle only, as this reduces its competitors' chances to sell their competing services as individual services," Andre...