Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon in antitrust scrutiny

In the United States, the executive branch, courts and Congress are moving to restrict the dominance of the US Big Tech. Meanwhile, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are launching counterattacks.

IN the 1960s, the US economy was driven by the automobile sector’s Big Three: General Motors (GM), Chrysler and Ford. Today, it is fueled by Big Tech. Over the past decade, US Big Tech has revolutionized the internet economy, but allegedly abused its dominance.

In June 2019, the antitrust enforcers agreed to focus on Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon while dividing responsibility over investigations. In October 2020, the House Judiciary Committee finished a report recommending a range of measures to address the firms’ allegedly anticompetitive conduct. And in June, the committee ordered a series of antitrust bills directed at Big Tech. Last December, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in cooperation with 46 US states, launched an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook regarding its acquisition of two rivals, Instagram and WhatsApp, and the consequent monopoly power. The antitrust division of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is preparing a second monopoly lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google over its digital advertising business.

Congress, too, may pursue legislation to address the Big Tech’s anticompetitive conduct.

These are just some of the recent signals that US antitrust may be about to toughen.

$9-trillion market cap

The combined market capitalization of the largest five technology giants reflects their dominance. It exceeds $9 trillion: Apple, ($2.4 trillion), Microsoft ($2.2 trillion), Google ($1.8 trillion), Amazon ($1.7 trillion) and Facebook ($1 trillion). It is their controversial conduct that has made them antitrust targets.

In the United States, antitrust law emerged with industrialization, income polarization and Big Business in the late 19th century. That’s when the Sherman Act (1890), Clayton Act (1914) and the Federal Trade Commission Act (1914) were enacted to promote competition and to suppress monopolies. These laws have been interpreted and enforced differently in different times. If the more permissive “rule of reason” reflected the early antitrust policies, the post-Depression trust-busting lawyers relied on “structuralist” rules aiming against excessive market concentration. As neoliberal economic policies triumphed in the 1970s, they were paralleled by the rise of the “Chicago School” and its more permissive antitrust views, presumably resting on law and economics. Since then, these interpretations have reflected the leverage of Big Business, but also competitiveness concerns about global competition. In the past decade, criticism against Big Tech has intensified as evidenced by expanded antitrust investigations in the United States and the European Union.

Revolving door politics

The first Big Tech case emerged when 19 states and the Justice Department sued Microsoft in 1999. Despite the ruling to split the software giant, subsequent years of wheeling and dealing resulted in a settlement without a breakup. Only days ago, the FTC found that the Big Five engaged in 616…