German cartel office opens investigation into Alphabet's Google

The Bundeskartellamt, Germany's cartel office, said it's opened investigations into Google Germany, Google Ireland and Alphabet . "An ecosystem which extends across various markets may be an indication that a company holds such a market position. It is often very difficult for other companies to challenge this position of power. Due to the large number of digital services offered by Google, such as the Google search engine, YouTube, Google Maps, the Android operating system or the Chrome browser, the company could be considered to be of paramount significance for competition across markets," said Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt. The regulator also has opened probes into Facebook and Amazon .