Google Buys ITA for Online Flight Search and Sales

Google has just been given the green light it's been waiting for since last summer concerning the firm's $700 million acquisition of the ITA flight price comparison service.

ITA supplies price information and flight searches to a number of online travel agents. As a result, several online flight sellers, including the 12 members of Fairsearch (Expedia, Trip Advisor, Travelocity, Microsoft etc.) have joined forces to oppose the takeover. They consider Google's acquisition of ITA to be anticompetitive. They also fear it could potentially lead to the creation of a monopoly, since Google could simply cut their access to ITA's technology or restrict availability through prohibitive pricing. As a result, the search engine giant would hold a very strong—if not too strong—position in the market. The group's concerns have been heard by the US Department of Justice, but the deal has still been given the go-ahead so long as Google complies with several strict conditions.

Google will have to continue to allow healthy competition in the market, honour previous agreements with third-party sites, and continue to develop the flight price comparison tool.

Current ITA clients can therefore renew their contracts until 2016 and, as yet, nothing is stopping new partners from subscribing to Google's newly acquired flight-search service.

In response to the Department of Justice's ruling, Fairsearch is relieved that 'consumers will continue to benefit from vibrant competition and innovation in travel search', but also warns that 'while this enforcement action is an important victory, Google's abuse of its search dominance still threatens competition and consumers in many critical areas of online services.'


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