Germany has the world’s third-largest economy but in terms of airline capacity, it’s far from a major power. Total capacity was actually lower in 2023 than it was a decade earlier.
05.08.2024 - 22:46 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Walker
A federal judge ruled Monday that Google used its grip on the general search engine market to raise prices for text ads with virtually no constraint — and that hits online travel companies hard.
“The trial evidence firmly established that Google’s monopoly power, maintained by the
exclusive distribution agreements, has enabled Google to increase text ads prices without any meaningful competitive constraint,” the ruling stated.
Booking Holdings and Expedia are some of Google’s biggest Ads customers in travel, spending billions each year to have their websites prioritized within search results pages.
The ruling was part of an antitrust case that found Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search and text advertising services.
The 277-page ruling, by Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says that the tech giant has stifled competition through exclusive contracts that make Google the default search engine for certain browsers and mobile devices.
That, the ruling said, allowed Google to increase ad prices without pushback.
Google has a 90% grip on desktop search and around 95% on mobile devices in the U.S., the court said.
Advertisers expressed reluctance to enter into new or expand existing partnerships with Bing — Google’s largest search engine competitor with around 6% market share — because of Bing’s lack of distribution clout. One unnamed online travel company said it “refused to share its information with Bing given its limited distribution,” the ruling said.
“The only apparent constraint on Google’s pricing decisions are potential advertiser outcry and bad publicity. Google, however, has managed to avoid those pitfalls by ramping up its pricing incrementally, which has allowed advertisers ‘to internalize prices and adjust bids appropriately,'” Mehta stated in his ruling. “Many advertisers do not even realize that Google is responsible for the changes in price. Thus, through barely perceptible and rarely announced tweaks to its ad auctions, Google has increased text ads prices without fear of losing advertisers.”
In Google’s auctions, advertisers bid on how much they are willing to pay when consumers click on their links, and for placement in search results.
Google plans to appeal the landmark decision.
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” said Kent Walker, president, Google Global Affairs, in a statement. “We appreciate the Court’s finding that Google is ‘the industry’s highest quality search engine, which has earned Google the trust of hundreds of millions of daily users,’ that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly
Germany has the world’s third-largest economy but in terms of airline capacity, it’s far from a major power. Total capacity was actually lower in 2023 than it was a decade earlier.
Revenue for Tripadvisor’s flagship brand and largest business is declining at an increasingly fast rate.
Beach club operators in Italy have threatened to go on strike over EU plans for their businesses.
United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg issued a letter to the chief executive officers of the nation’s 10 largest airlines to reinforce the need to provide customers with cash refunds when appropriate.
Travel stocks were the best performers Monday, a day when the broader U.S stock market had its worst day in years – but don’t get too excited. Fact is, travel had front-loaded the pain. While it was Monday’s performing sector, the travel sector has been the performing group of stocks over the past week and past year.
A US judge ruled on Monday that Google is a monopoly that has been using its search dominance to stifle competition in a major decision that could shake up big tech.
It wasn’t that long ago that U.S. budget airlines were crushing the network carriers. They led in operating profits, with margins of around 13%.
New entry requirements for dogs flying into the US went into effect Thursday, a policy change aiming to prevent the reintroduction of canine rabies that will impact thousands of fliers who travel with their furry friends.
The Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would prohibit airlines from charging families fees to sit together.
The Department of Transportation is proposing a rule that would prohibit airlines from charging “junk fees” to seat families together on flights.
One reason German hotel price-comparison site Trivago invested $10 million in Holisto is to resolve the “irritation” Trivago users feel when they get bounced around to many other sites to make a booking.
I was days away from sending my agent the 35,000-word proposal for my second book when I decided to treat myself with a three-week adventure in Brazil.