Last month in a previous article we were dealing with the Google story "Online travel sites are terrified of Google". Here is the follow up from an article published in Le Journal du Net on the 11 of April 2011. You'll see that Google has now the authorization to make itself as an online travel agency but it has to follow specific rules to do so...
GOOGLE IS ALLOWED TO BUY OUT “ITA” BUT UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS…
The US authorities came to an agreement with Google. This agreement imposes specific requirements in order to set limits to competitive distortion during 5 years. A limites period of time established as a security for competition and business survival of the traditional online travel agencies.
The agreement stipulates that Google shall supply the OTA with the ITA software. The Research and Development on this software shall be maintained. Moreover it is not permitted to prevent the OTA from getting information about flights by reaching an agreement with airlines companies.
Another requirement is the creation of a mechanism dedicated to collect and handle the complaints regarding the unfair trade that could occur.
Then an "intern fireguard" has to be set up to stop Google from getting sensitive information from ITA's partner companies’ sites.
Once the acquisition finalized, Google will be able to offer a new service based on search engine that will be easily accessible.
Hopefully some customers may take advantage of this new and shattering entry in the travel online market.
We found interesting to follow on this subject as the question is not totally closed yet. It is a real important issue for online travel agencies as Google is becoming their biggest competitor ever.
This "Giant" of the Web already has many different activities in which it competes a lot with existent businesses who are expert in. If it is going on by attackin the tourism industry, every stakeholders in this fiels should be very carreful toward him...
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