Italy’s antitrust agency AGCM, said it was probing online search giant Google and its parent company Alphabet over alleged unfair commercial practices involving users’ personal data.
The request for consent that Google sends to its users to connect its multiple services “could constitute misleading and aggressive commercial practice”, the watchdog said.
This “incomplete and misleading,” information supplied to users fails to clarify the impact their consent may have on the use their personal data, the antitrust authority, which is in charge of overseeing consumer rights in Italy, added.
The request Google sends customers for linking its services appears to provide no relevant information to users on the impact this consent has on the personal data they share with Google, or it provides this information imprecisely and inadequately.
Google offers a wide range of online tools, including video platform YouTube, email service Gmail, and Maps.
The antitrust body said Google presented its request for users’ consent in a way that could limit their freedom of choice, by inducing them to agree to a combined usage of personal data by different Google services.
The AGCM also alleges that the customer maybe taking a commercial decision they would not have otherwise done by consenting to the “combination and cross-use” of personal data among Google’s various services.
“We will analyse the details of this case and will work cooperatively with the authority,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement.
Under Italian legislation companies found in breach of consumer rights rules face fines ranging from 5,000 euros to 10 million euros.
The AGCM has struck against Google multiple times in recent years and in 2021, it fined Google and Apple ten million Euro when it found that users were not given enough clear information on the commercial uses of their data.
Earlier that year, AGCM had fine Google ten million euro for not allowing an app by Enel X onto its android auto platform.
