Google's YouTube faces calls for competition investigation

Advocacy groups expressed concern about YouTube's growth as a competitor to cable and streaming services and its pre-installation on smartphones and TVs sold in the US

'YouTube has a decade-long record of using its dominance across numerous markets to crowd out competitors, lock in customers, and force the purchase of bundled services,' the groups wrote.

Tech and competition watchdog groups have called on the US Department of Justice to probe YouTube, saying the video-streaming platform could enable Google and its parent company, Alphabet, to dominate home entertainment.

In a letter to the US Justice Department competition chief Jonathan Kanter, the American Economic Liberties Project, Demand Progress and nine other groups expressed concern about YouTube's growth as a competitor to cable and streaming services and its pre-installation on smartphones and TVs sold in the US.