[ad_1]
By Jan Wolfe
(Reuters) – The US government is taking a closer look at the obscure topic of antitrust law to determine whether Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon.com of Alphabet Inc. are competing with each other.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice, both of which are responsible for enforcing antitrust laws, have divided surveillance over the four companies, Amazon and Facebook under the supervision of FTCand Apple and Google under the Ministry of Justice, sources told Reuters.
Some consumer rights advocates praised the results of these surveys, arguing that large technology companies were stifling competition and exerting undue influence on discourse and trade.
But some legal experts have said the investigations may not lead to major reforms, noting that US law makes it difficult to prove antitrust violation.
Below are some questions about the basic principles of US antitrust law and the priorities of regulators:
What is the purpose of antitrust laws?
Antitrust laws are designed to promote fair competition.
A 1914 law, the Clayton Act, allows the government to block mergers that would harm consumers.
The Sherman Act, pbaded in 1890, prohibits price-fixing conspiracies and other agreements restricting competition.
The Sherman Act also establishes rules regarding monopoly power. These are the laws that the Department of Justice and the FTC should focus on the opening of investigations on technology companies, said legal experts.
Why Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple would be subject to control?
The Department of Justice should focus on allegations that Google favors its own products in search results and abuses its influence in the online advertising market, although it is supposed to review all the activities of the company, sources told Reuters.
It is unclear what aspects of Amazon, Facebook and Apple could be studied.
Google indicated that the changes made to its search algorithms were made with consumers in mind and that it was transparent in promoting its own services.
Cofounder Chris Hughes has described the monopoly of social media on Facebook, claiming in a New York Times editorial that he should be forced to sell his WhatsApp and Instagram affiliates.
In his editorial, Facebook spokesman Nick Clegg said, "In this competitive environment, it's hard to support the claim that Facebook is a monopoly."
Clegg wrote that Facebook is responsible for the type of antitrust law on fast and consumer-friendly innovations.
In the United States, half of all online shopping transactions are done on Amazon, which allows the e-commerce company to stand out from the merchants who use its platforms.
But in a 2018 letter to shareholders, CEO Jeff Bezos said, "Amazon remains a small player in the global retail business," because most business transactions are still offline.
Finally, some software developers argue that Apple holds a monopoly on its app market and uses this power to demand high commissions and engage in other anti-competitive practices.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said CBS News in an interview aired Tuesday that Apple does not have a dominant position on any market.
What should the US government prove to prosecute technology companies?
It's hard to prove a violation of US antitrust law, legal experts said.
It is not enough for regulators to establish that a company has monopoly power. They must also demonstrate anti-competitive behavior – an abuse of this dominant position aimed at circumventing fair competition.
"You can get a monopoly just by being a good competitor and it's perfect," said Chris Sagers, an antitrust professor at Cleveland State University.
According to current case law, the Ministry of Justice and the FTC It must also be shown that consumers are harmed, which has generally been measured over the last few decades in response to rising prices and slowing innovation.
With the help of these parameters, it could be hard to prove that technology companies, which charge little money for many of their services, are hurting consumers, said some legal experts.
But Charlotte Slaiman, antitrust attorney for consumer rights group Public Knowledge, said economists and the public increasingly agreed that it is misleading to call toll free services like Google and Facebook.
"What's really happening is that consumers are negotiating their data in exchange for a service," Slaiman said.
In 2013, the FTC closed a survey of Google's search practices. The agency said that while Google's changes to the presentation of search results likely hurt some competitors, there was "plenty of evidence" that Google was trying to improve the user experience.
What can the US government do if investigators find a violation of antitrust laws?
the FTC and the Department of Justice can both take civil action in federal court and ask judges to order changes to a business model.
The Department of Justice can also initiate criminal prosecutions, but these lawsuits generally involve cartels and pricing, which makes it unlikely that any large technology companies will be prosecuted.
(Report by Jan Wolfe and Diane Bartz, edited by Noeleen Walder and Grant McCool)
Source link
