Italy launches Google antitrust probe, says Google refused to integrate Italian energy giant Enel's app to find electric car charging stations into Android Auto
Google has been hit by yet another antitrust investigation in Europe, but this time it's not about well-worn complaints …
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2019 complaint is the origin point of one of Europe's longest-running platform-gatekeeping sagas. Italy's competition authority alleged Google refused to integrate Enel's EV charging-station app into Android Auto, and the case escalated steadily: a €100M+ fine from Italy's watchdog in 2021 for restricting third-party access to Android Auto, then a broader interoperability investigation launched in 2022.
The legal question has since climbed to the EU level: a CJEU adviser sided with Italy's authority in September 2024, and in February 2025 the Court of Justice said Google's refusal to host Enel's app may break EU competition rules. What began as a dispute over one charging app is now the test case for whether a car-software gatekeeper must open its platform.
First-order effects
- Google faces direct legal exposure on Android Auto access terms, with Alphabet now defending both the Enel refusal and a separate Italian probe into its user-consent practices.
- Enel gains a credible regulatory path to getting its charging-station finder in front of Android Auto users, where it was previously locked out.
Second-order effects
- Other EV-charging providers and third-party developers can lean on this precedent to demand access to Android Auto rather than build around it, eroding Google's discretion over the platform.
- Italy's parallel investigations — display advertising following the IAB Italy complaint, plus the consent-practices probe — stack enforcement pressure on Alphabet in one of its key European markets.
Third-order effects
- If the Court of Justice's position holds, control over in-car operating systems becomes a regulated interoperability question across the EU, not a unilateral product decision by the gatekeeper.
- National antitrust authorities are showing they can seed EU-wide precedent from a single domestic complaint, lowering the cost for smaller-market regulators to challenge large platforms.
The trend: Gatekeepers' control of in-car software is being converted into enforceable interoperability obligations, as national antitrust cases like Italy's feed upward into binding EU court rulings.