Antitrust opens investigation into Google for unfair commercial practices

The Italian Antitrust Authority has opened an investigation against Google and its parent company Alphabet concerning the sending to users of the request for consent to 'linking' their services.

"This request,' explains the Antitrust Authority, 'would in fact appear not to provide relevant information - or would provide it inadequately and imprecisely - regarding the real effect that consent has on Google's use of users' personal data. The same criticisms would exist with regard to the variety and quantity of Google services, in respect of which a 'combined' and 'cross-use' of personal data may take place, and with regard to the possibility of modulating (and therefore also limiting) consent to only certain services. According to the Authority, moreover, Google would use techniques and methods for submitting the request for consent, and also for constructing the mechanisms for collecting consent itself, which could condition the freedom of choice of the average consumer. The customer would in fact be induced to take a commercial decision that he would not otherwise have taken, by consenting to the combined and cross-use of his personal data among the plurality of services offered'.