The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is poised to rule on Google’s takeover of airline distribution software company ITA amid expectations it will allow the deal to go ahead.
However, the green light for Google’s $700-million (£440 million) acquisition of ITA, announced last summer, will trigger calls for regulations governing global distribution systems (GDSs) to be amended to include Google.
The DoJ is expected to announce this week that Google’s purchase of the airline-ticketing software company can proceed. Google operates outside the existing travel distribution regulations, but the GDSs argue Google will become a major distributor of air fares after swallowing ITA.
Christoph Klenner, executive secretary of the European Technology and Travel Services Association (ETTSA), told Travel Weekly: “It is not a question of whether Google is allowed to acquire ITA Software. It is a question of regulation.”
He said ETTSA, which represents the major GDSs, will tell regulators that Google has become a global airline distributor. “Google can say it is not a GDS, that it is an aggregator,” said Klenner. “But probably the term GDS will have to disappear from the regulations.”
Online retailers, many of which use ITA software, argue Google will dominate the sector following the takeover. Thomas Barnett, a former head of the DoJ’s anti-trust division and now a lawyer for Expedia, said: “You’re taking the dominant flight search engine company, ITA, and combining it with the dominant online search company.”
US senators wrote to the DoJ at the end of last year warning: “Many ITA customers believe access to ITA’s technology is critical to competition in online air travel search because it cannot be matched by other players in the travel search industry.”
Google has pledged to honour ITA’s existing contracts.