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Online Travel

There Is A Good Chance Google Travel's Ambitions Are About To Be Reined In, Legislatively

Dennis Schaal photo
Dennis Schaal
Google Headquarters

Photo Credit: Google headquarters in Mountain View, California as seen on June 5, 2013. The U.S. Congress is considering legislation to force Google to deal more fairly with competitors.  Flickr.com / Spiros Vathis

Skift Take

There is a long lobbyist-filled journey ahead for this House committee-backed bill to cut Google Travel down to size. But it's an important step that was almost unthinkable a few years ago.

Google's travel industry rivals may eventually get competitive relief under a series of bills approved by a U.S. House of Representative committee. Under the American Choice and Innovation Online Act, which passed a House committee 24-20 Wednesday in the face of intense oppositional lobbying, Google, as well as Facebook and Amazon, would be barred from giving preference to their "own products, services, or lines of business over" those of competitors. Under the threat of penalties that could amount to 15-30 percent of their U.S. revenue, the big platforms would likewise be prohibited from using non-public data generated on their platforms to support the platforms' products or services. Six months after the bill's potential adoption, the U.

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