The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has taken steps to place Google under formal federal supervision, a move that could subject the company to the same inspections the government imposes on major banks.
According to The Washington Post, the CFPB has been in talks with Google for months about the supervision order, which hasn’t yet been made final. Formed in 2008, the CFPB has broad powers to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or predatory financial practices, including affording regulators access to a company’s internal records to ensure their activities are sound — and seek remedies if they’re not.
The exact scope of the CFPB’s concerns with Google isn’t clear, notes The Post, and the political fate of the bureau’s work under director Rohit Chopra is also in doubt. But the move adds to Google’s regulatory headaches in the U.S., where it’s lost a major antitrust trial and faces another over its advertising technology.