Germany targets Google market power in expansion of tech rules

Germany’s competition regulator is investigating whether Google is dominant enough to be subject to the country’s new digital-competition law, broadening its efforts to brandish new powers against companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc.

Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said Tuesday that it has opened a probe into whether Google, the main unit of Alphabet Inc., is of “paramount significance for competition across markets.” That designation allows the regulator to impose changes to a dominant digital company’s business practices under a law passed in January.