Germany's antitrust regulator says it will conduct an in-depth analysis of Google's data processing terms, since Google enjoys a “strategic advantage”
- Company is latest tech giant targeted under tough new powers — Facebook, Amazon activities are under similar scrutiny
Context & Ripple Effects
Germany's Federal Cartel Office has spent years building a case file on Big Tech before turning its new enforcement powers on Google: an investigation into Amazon's double role as retailer and marketplace host opened in 2018, and a data protection probe of Facebook's audio transcription followed in 2019. The regulator now says it will dissect Google's data processing terms because data access gives the company a "strategic advantage" — its first use of those powers against Google directly.
The move lands amid a widening multi-front squeeze on Google in Europe: Brussels had already been gathering evidence on Google's ad contracts and scraping practices since 2015, and weeks later would open a fresh probe into whether Google favors its own display ad tech. Germany's scrutiny signals that national regulators are no longer waiting for the Commission.
First-order effects
- Google faces a formal, in-depth review of its data processing terms in Germany — a probe that can escalate quickly under the same new powers already aimed at Facebook and Amazon.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and advertisers negotiating with Google gain leverage: the News Showcase terms probe and the ad tech investigation give them regulatory cover to resist Google's standard contracts.
- Facebook and Amazon, already under similar German scrutiny, can expect their own data-driven advantages to be examined through the same "strategic advantage" lens.
Third-order effects
- If Germany's five-year surveillance regime — formalized months later when the Cartel Office placed Google under sustained monitoring — becomes the template, large platforms' data terms become a standing subject of national regulation rather than episodic antitrust cases, shifting bargaining power toward publishers, merchants, and users.
The trend: National competition regulators in Europe are moving from case-by-case antitrust to continuous surveillance of how big platforms convert data access into contractual power.