November 18, 2020 — Politico featured Economic Liberties’ Senior Fellow Graham Steele’s statement on Google’s nightmarish effort to expand into banking and further consolidate its market power.

“The continuing push by Big Tech deeper and deeper into banking is at once alarming and totally unsurprising. It is a nightmarish example of the ways monopolies like Google can bully their way into new industries and it will open the door to all kinds of abuse,” said Graham Steele, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project. “With this expanded banking and payments business, Google can further consolidate its market power by offering preferential terms to customers, retailers, and banks for using its full suite of marketplace and financial services. This will allow Google to commingle its digital marketplace with consumers’ financial data, centralizing sensitive information, raising privacy and pricing concerns, and increasing the risks of data breaches and abuse.”

“The array and complexity of these products and services has the potential to confuse consumers and undermine important consumer protections,” added Steele. “We’ve long sought to keep banking and commerce separate. Google Pay’s proposed expansion provides a crystal-clear example as to why that remains an important policy for reining in the power of Big Tech today.”