Google Faces Antitrust Suit Over Maps Monopoly, Waze Deal (1)

Alphabet Inc. is facing federal antitrust litigation in San Francisco over claims that it leverages its dominance of the GPS navigation market—through Google Maps, Waze, and related services—to lock app developers into the “Google ecosystem” and hit them with “egregious” price hikes.

The lawsuit accuses Google of capturing 81% of the market by offering Maps for free, exploiting its data “treasure trove” to cement its monopoly, placing restrictive terms on developers that incorporate its functions, and using other services like search and YouTube to favor Maps by “self-preferencing.”

After Google’s control of the “digital-mapping stack” was complete following its 2013 ...