US Steers Towards Major Antitrust Investigation of Technology Giants

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – The US government is preparing to investigate whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are abusing their huge market power, sources told Reuters on Monday that could be an unprecedented investigation of the largest companies in the world.

The Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice, which enforce US antitrust laws, have divided surveillance over the four companies, said two sources, Amazon and Facebook under FTC surveillance, and Apple and Google under the Ministry of Justice. .

Once jurisdiction is established, the next step is for both federal agencies to decide whether to open formal investigations. The results will probably not be fast. A previous Google FTC survey took more than two years.

In the United States and around the world, technology companies are facing negative reactions, fueled by the concerns of their competitors, legislators and consumer groups, that companies have too much power and harm to users and consumers. rival companies.

Shares of Facebook Inc. fell 7.5% on Monday, while Google's owner, Alphabet Inc, lost more than 6%. Amazon.com Inc. shares fell 4.6% and Apple Inc. 1%.

The Department of Justice and the FTC do not generally discuss investigations.

US President Donald Trump has called for a more in-depth review of social media companies and Google, accusing them of suppressing conservative voices online without presenting any evidence.

He has repeatedly criticized Amazon for taking advantage of the US postal service, also without evidence. Trump has often attacked Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, who privately owns the Washington Post, a newspaper that often criticizes Trump.

Leading lawmakers on both sides of the aisle welcomed potential investigations by leading technology companies.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, a Republican, told Reuters that the business model of companies such as Google and Facebook should be scrutinized. "It's so powerful and so unregulated," he said. Senator Marsha Blackburn, another Republican, said the panel would do what it called a "deeper dive" into big tech companies.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who said Monday that US authorities should do more than wring their hands over corporate influence, also spoke.

"Their predatory power requires a strict and rigorous investigation and antitrust action," the Connecticut senator wrote on Twitter.

Moreover, the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives has opened its own investigation into competition in digital markets, Republicans and Democrats worrying about the power exerted by the tech giants.

Last Friday, the Justice Department set the stage for investigating Google to determine whether the largest online advertising platform in the world was using its size to keep small competitors out of business, breaking laws designed to ensure fair competition. The company declined to comment on Monday.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Amazon would fall under the jurisdiction of the FTC in any investigation. Amazon declined to comment on Monday.

Informed people claim that neither the Justice Department nor the FTC contacted Google or Amazon about such investigations, and that company executives are not aware of the issues examined. by the regulators.

Apple and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

While the four technology companies, all worth hundreds of billions of dollars, were closely scrutinized by regulators and legislators around the world, it was unclear what the US Department of Justice United or the FTC was planning to focus.

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has been criticized for taking control of third-party sellers of its website, which must pay for the ad to compete with third-party and private-label sales by Amazon itself. Legislators have also argued that Amazon's low prices have hurt traditional retailers, many of whom had closed because they could not compete.

Apple is being investigated by the European Union over a complaint filed by streaming music provider Spotify Technology SA, that Apple abuses its power over downloading apps. In 2014, the iPhone maker settled a lawsuit from the Justice Department alleging that he had conspired with publishers to increase the price of ebooks.

The FTC has already investigated the sharing of Facebook data belonging to 87 million of its users with the British cabinet of British policy advice, now missing, Cambridge Analytica. Facebook said in April that it was expecting a fine of up to $ 5 billion from the regulator.

Facebook, which has rivals from the Instagram and WhatsApp era and has more than 1.5 billion daily users, has considerable influence in many countries and has been criticized for allowing misleading and so-called "misleading" messages. false news "about his service.

Google has faced accusations that its web search service, which has become so dominant that it has become a verb, is driving consumers to buy its own products at the expense of their competitors.

The FTC settled a Google survey in 2013 with a reprimand. The European Union's competition regulator has imposed several fines on the company, the most recent of which, in March, amounted to 1.5 billion euros ( $ 1.7 billion) in a case involving illegal research-related advertising brokerage practices from 2006 to 2016.

Legal experts have stated that it is unlikely that US regulators are trying to dismantle the giants of technology.

It is rare to dissolve a company, but not unheard of, Standard Oil and AT & T being two of the biggest examples. US antitrust investigations most often result in an agreement to modify certain commercial practices.