Shubha Ghosh spoke recently to American Public Media's Steve Chiotakis about Google Inc.'s plan to purchase airline fare tracker ITA.

The purchase, which has since been approved by the Justice Department, would establish Google as a key player in the online travel market by giving the company control over the software that powers major U.S. airline reservation systems in addition to popular online fare-comparison services like Kayak, TripAdvisor and Hotwire.

Ghosh discussed the anti-trust concerns some critics have raised: "The anti-trust concern with the acquisition is whether first existing travel search sites would still have access to the software," he said. "The concern in the marketplace is that once Google has acquired this software that is essential or an important feature of these existing travel search sites, that it now may have some sort of unfair advantage in the marketplace and may potentially even deny access to the software."

Ghosh also addressed how the purchase could affect people wanting to book flights online.

"If Google becomes the only place that provides this type of travel search in an effective and meaningful way, then that might affect the kind of access to information that consumers would have," he said.

To read APM's Marketplace Morning Report transcript, click here.  

Submitted by UW Law News on April 12, 2011

This article appears in the categories: In the Media