Germany asks carmakers if Google's new map terms end bundling fears

Germany asks carmakers if Google's new map terms end bundling fears

10 November 2026: Germany's competition authority has opened a market survey of carmakers and rival map providers to test whether a restructured Google offer, the Geo Cloud Automotive Program, removes its concerns about bundled in-car map services. No decision has been taken, and any manufacturer choosing a navigation stack for future models has a live chance to be heard.

Not yet independently verified. The regulator's release gives no closing date for responses, and we have not read the terms of the Geo Cloud Automotive Program on a Google page. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Two questions about the in-car map stack

The Bundeskartellamt's first question is about Google Automotive SDK, a recently introduced product for vehicle makers that combines map data, point-of-interest search, navigation functions and real-time traffic information. The authority is examining whether Google offers those services only as a bundle, leaving buyers unable to take individual parts and combine them with services from other providers.

Its second question concerns the Google Maps Platform, which sells independent map services and is separate from the SDK. The authority wants to know whether that platform is a true equivalent to buying single SDK components, and whether its design for the automotive sector makes interoperability with other map services harder.

"From a competition perspective, it is important that vehicle manufacturers are free to choose between various suppliers and able to combine map services according to their requirements," said Andreas Mundt, the authority's president.

What Google has offered instead

Google has told the authority it will reorganise and standardise its automotive Maps Platform offer under the Geo Cloud Automotive Program name. The survey is meant to establish whether that change is enough. Mundt said "a large number of details" remain to be settled, some of them very technical.

The legal basis is section 19a of the German competition act, the special abuse regime for large digital groups. In 2025 the authority closed two earlier proceedings, on Google Automotive Services and on the Google Maps Platform. The current case asks whether specific restrictions exist beyond the conduct already stopped in those cases.

Who can answer

Questionnaires have gone to vehicle manufacturers and to other map service providers. A company that has not been written to can still respond by contacting the authority at info@bundeskartellamt.bund.de. Suppliers building infotainment systems for carmakers, and map data firms, fall within the affected group even where they did not receive a letter.

For a carmaker, the practical point is contractual. A navigation deal being negotiated now may be written against terms that change once the Geo Cloud Automotive Program is published and the authority has ruled on it, so any commitment to the SDK as a single package deserves a review clause.

Our catalogue lists 52 car manufacturers. Alternative map suppliers on it include HERE Technologies, TomTom and Mapbox.

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Sources

• Bundeskartellamt: Market survey on Google's map services in the automotive sector, 9 November 2026