Leading lobbying groups representing airlines, hotels, and retailers have called on European Union tech regulators to ensure their perspectives are considered alongside those of large intermediaries when implementing new tech regulations affecting Google.
The Airlines for Europe group, which includes prominent members such as Air France-KLM and British Airways owner IAG, along with hotel group Hotrec, European Hotel Forum, EuroCommerce, Ecommerce Europe, and Independent Retail Europe, voiced their concerns in March about the impact of these regulations.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) outlines a series of regulations for Google and five other tech giants, aimed at providing users with more choices and fostering competition. However, the industry groups have expressed fears that the required adjustments may negatively impact their revenues.
In a joint letter dated May 22 to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager and EU industry chief Thierry Breton, the groups highlighted their escalating concerns. “Our industries have serious concerns that currently considered solutions and requirements for implementing the DMA could further increase discrimination,” they wrote.
“Initial observations indicate that these changes risk severely depleting direct sales revenues of companies by giving more prominence to powerful online intermediaries due to the preferential treatment they would receive,” the letter added.
The European Commission, which is currently investigating Google for potential breaches of the DMA, has not yet responded to requests for comment.
In a blog post from March, Google mentioned that changes to search results would increase traffic to large intermediaries and aggregators, potentially reducing visibility for hotels, airlines, merchants, and restaurants. Google has not provided an immediate comment on the latest concerns.
The groups stressed, “We are concerned that the non-compliance investigation refers only to the need to treat third-party services in a fair and non-discriminatory manner, without any acknowledgment of European businesses that also offer their services on Google.”