Justice Department Collaborates with US States in Technological Investigations, says Chief of Antitrust

The Department of Justice is working with state attorneys general to determine whether technology platforms such as Facebook and Google are stifling competition in the sector, said departmental antitrust chief Makan Delrahim.

The statement came only a day after The Wall Street Journal announced that a group of states would conduct an antitrust investigation into the technology sector that could be formally announced later this month. This new state-led investigation would put more pressure on technology companies, some of which are already under investigation for potentially anti-competitive behavior by the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC's Facebook antitrust investigation could end next year, FTC President Joe Simons said on Monday. "All the important cases that I'm trying to focus on," Simons said. "I would like to be outside before the elections."

Delrahim's comments were heard in an interview Tuesday at a Tech Policy Institute conference in Colorado. When asked whether Congress should update its current antitrust law to better govern the technology industry, Delrahim told reporters, "I do not think so for the moment. I think the laws we have are quite flexible. I think we just need to apply antitrust laws appropriately, quickly and aggressively. "

His comments contradict some of what Democrats in the House of Representatives have said in recent months. Earlier this year, the House Judiciary Committee Committee on Anti-Trust Legislation opened an investigation into major technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, hoping to determine how current legislation could be updated. to better control the technology sector.

"After four decades of weak enforcement of antitrust law and judicial hostility to antitrust cases", said in a statement the President of the House of Representatives of the Judiciary, David Cicillin (D- RI), "in the expectation of a congressional decision." Adequate to combat the abusive behavior of the gatekeepers of the platform or if we need new legislation to meet this challenge. "

The Ministry of Justice opened its "broad" review of the technology sector in July, but little has surfaced on the surface regarding the exact investigations of officials. Delrahim suggested that the ministry is still asking for documents and that it "could impose a mandatory procedure on third parties who may or may not need it".

Delrahim also questioned whether antitrust law could be used to address the concerns expressed by Republicans in recent months regarding the so-called "conservative bias" on platforms. "It depends if it's a competition issue," Delrahim told reporters. "If you have more competition, consumers may have different business opportunities when a particular quality of a business may not appeal to them."