HomeToGo Files Antitrust Complaint Against Google In Germany

Vacation rental search engine HomeToGo, like other local travel startups including experienced booking platform GetYourGuide, has filed an antitrust complaint against Google, accusing it of stealing content and data, according to a report in German newspaper Handelsblatt.

According to the newspaper’s report, the group of more than half a dozen startups is mulling filing a cartel complaint against the multinational technology giant over accusations that Google is abusing its search dominance by asserting its data standards on advertising partners, extracting their data and using it to promote its own products at a cheaper rate. To achieve this, it forces its partners to sign non-disclosure agreements [NDAs] to access their products and data.

The CEOs of Google, its parent company Alphabet, and a number of the largest tech platforms such as Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, were recently grilled at an historic antitrust hearing at the US Congress from members of the House Antitrust Subcommittee over suggestions that the companies are becoming too dominant in their segments and driving any competitors away from the market.

This was seen recently when Apple reportedly threatened to drop Airbnb and live on-demand workout platform ClassPass from its App Store if they did not comply with the company’s demands to receive 30% of any sales generated by their virtual experiences and classes now being offered due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.