Google faces Italy competition probe over ‘misleading and aggressive’ pursuit of user data

Google faces an antitrust probe in Italy over potential “misleading and aggressive” commercial practices – the latest in an escalating series of competition inquiries targeting the Big Tech giant in the US and Europe.

Italy’s competition authority said its probe is focused on the consent requests that Google sends to users regarding their data. The requests “appear to provide no relevant information” on the “real effect that consent has on Google’s user of personal data.”

“The request for consent that Google submits to its users to the linking of the services offered may constitute a misleading and aggressive commercial practice,” the Italian agency said in a press release.

“Indeed, it appears to be accompanied by inadequate, incomplete and misleading information and it could influence the choice of whether and to what extent consent should be given.”

Italian officials are also probing instances in Google seeks consent for “combination” and “cross-use” of personal data across multiple services, such as Google’s main search engine and YouTube.

Google may be implementing the consent requests in a way that “could condition the freedom of choice of the average consumer” by requiring users to allow use of their data across multiple services while using just one.

The Post has reached out to Google for comment on the probe.

The Italian probe adds another headache for the company, which faces a pair of active Justice Department antitrust lawsuits in the US over alleged unfair business practices.

A federal judge is expected to rule on the landmark case targeting Google’s online search empire later this year.

Separately, a case aimed at Google’s alleged monopoly over digital advertising technology is slated for trial this fall.

Elsewhere, the European Commission, the European Union’s competition watchdog, said in March that Google faced a noncompliance investigation focused on “Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing on Google Search.”

Google is being investigated under Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which is aimed at six tech firms determined to be the internet’s gatekeepers.