Opponents of the Google-ITA Software deal produced a video outlining the reasons they believe the acquisition would harm the online travel industry and consumers. And the coalition is promoting its message through a Politico email.
FairSearch.org offers up its video, Google Buys ITA --A Travel Story, and asks consumers to "like" it on the coalition's Facebook page as a message to the U.S. Dept. of Justice to block the deal.
The coalition is promoting the video by sponsoring Politico's Playbook email Monday through Friday during this election week in the U.S.
FairSearch.org says the email has 60,000 subscribers and 100,000 weekly page views. Politico, a leading online news website about politics, says Playbook, an early morning email, maps "out the moves politicos need to watch out for."
Here's the video, which is available FairSearch.org and Vimeo:
Google Buys ITA - A Travel Story from FairSearch.org on Vimeo.
The video, which shows the harm to a consumer named "Bob," says "Google could manipulate the marketplace," and dominate the online travel industry by controlling who licenses ITA Software's airfare search and pricing product.
Google may place its airfare results on the top of the page or steer consumers to a favored advertiser, the video says.
The coalition opines that Google has done this sort of thing before, favoring Google News over newspaper websites, for instance, or directing people to Google Maps instead of MapQuest.
All of this would lead to higher prices for advertisers, as well as escalating airfares and fewer choices for consumers, the video says.
So FairSearch.org, which includes Expedia, Kayak, Sabre and Farelogix, clearly is putting a few bucks into furthering its aims.