The United States Federal Trade Commission has launched investigations into Google’s US$1.3bn acquisition of Waze following concerns raised by consumer groups.
According to the Guardian, the acquisition of the Israeli startup will lead to domination of the online mapping space by Google.
The FTC will be particularly investigating whether the takeover will restrict consumer choices by forming a major monopoly.
Google is already under investigation in a series of anti-trust cases, as well as facing scrutiny in the US and Europe as a patent row involving its Motorola subsidiary continues.
Related to the Waze acquisition, the FTC is looking into whether the company took advantage of its dominance in online advertising following a buyout of DoubleClick in 2007 at US$3.1bn.
