After long peace, Big Tech faces US antitrust liquidation, Telecom News, ET Telecom

Written by Alex Pigman

WASHINGTON: After more than a decade of neglecting Big Tech companies, U.S. antitrust enforcement officials are intensifying, making some headlines that could fundamentally change the way industry giants do business. A lawsuit to collect is underway.

Five major Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuits initiated under the Trump and Biden administrations are pending against major US technology companies, including two against Google. There is a possibility of company split.

Most recently, in March, the FTC sued Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker was abusing its control of the premium smartphone sector.

Washington has remained largely silent on Big Tech affairs since its war with Microsoft, which began in the 1990s and ended in a bitter battle with the Justice Department and a settlement in the early 2000s.

A new generation of lawsuits, inspired by developments in Europe and elsewhere, say the practices of tech giants, including Amazon and Meta, stifle competition, harm consumers and warrant major changes in business operations. claims.

The lawsuits took place over different timelines, before different federal judges, and are based on a wide variety of allegations. An appeal could drag the case on for as long as 10 years.

The campaign's first lawsuit was launched against Google over its search engine in 2020, and the first judgment could come as early as the end of this year.

Google's second lawsuit, also filed by the Justice Department, targets the company for its dominance of the digital advertising sector. Meanwhile, Amazon and Meta are facing lawsuits with the FTC.

The lawsuit has drawn applause from lawmakers amid frustration with the power of big tech companies in the public eye.

But many in the business community and legal experts are holding back on the case, believing it to be legally flimsy or politically motivated.

The heads of the FTC and the Department of Justice's antitrust divisions believe it is their mission to provide consumer protection and steadfastly support their case.

“It's always good to look at the actual facts instead of going off the rails,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in response to critics at a conference in Washington hosted by the American Bar Association. he said.

“We really work on issues that impact people's lives, like healthcare and digital (technology), but we go far beyond that,” she said.

Rather than getting bogged down in legal theory, Khan said the FTC's case is “fit for purpose in 2024.”

“It means…not relying on outdated assumptions and theories that clearly contradict what we see with our own eyes,” she added.

– Are you legally creative? –

In an informal survey of 19 antitrust scholars conducted by University of Michigan law professor Daniel Crane, a majority of respondents thought the case would be difficult to prosecute.

“The overall sense is that we would expect to see more losses than wins,” Crane wrote, suggesting that Google's case is the most powerful for the government and Amazon's the weakest. is considered.

Mr. Khan's critics point to widespread opinion in the legal community that the Biden administration's lawsuit has weak legal basis.

“These lawsuits are in some ways frustrating,” said Michael Santoro, a business administration professor at Santa Clara University who was not involved in the study. Because it looks strong.”

“It's ultimately going to overturn antitrust law,” said an executive at a major technology company, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The EU's competition czar, Margrethe Vestager, told her US counterpart in Washington that she wished the EU had been more aggressive in its earlier antitrust decisions.

“If I had to do it all over again, I would have done it more boldly, because we don't have a lot of time. There's more focus in every jurisdiction,” she said.

Mr. Vestager has been in office for nearly a decade, pursuing a series of unique lawsuits against tech companies accused of being outlandish or legally creative.

In the latest technology-related decision, the EU last month fined Apple 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) for preventing music streaming services from offering subscription options outside the App Store.