US regulators admit to infighting
Washington, Sept. 18: The top US antitrust regulators admitted at a congressional hearing on Tuesday that they had wasted time arguing over who would investigate which tech company, as they take on major probes of firms like Alphabet’s Google for allegedly using their market power unfairly.
The Justice Department’s antitrust division chief, Makan Delrahim, acknowledged instances where officials’ time “is wasted on those kinds of squabbles.”
The hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel was a tough one for Delrahim and Joe Simons, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, who were criticized by lawmakers for overlapping on the probes, and for other matters.
Reuters and others reported in June that the agencies had divided up the companies being investigated, with Justice taking Google and Apple, while the
FTC looked at Facebook and Amazon.
The Justice Department later said it was opening a probe of online platforms. This led some industry observers to question whether the two investigations would overlap. “Based on news reports, it sounds like your agencies may be pursuing monopolisation investigations of the same companies,” said the panel’s Chairman Mike Lee. “I don’t think your agencies should be divvying up parts of a monopolisation investigation of the same tech company.” Meanwhile, the Justice Department’s antitrust division chief, Makan Delrahim, said Tuesday that its probes of “marketleading online platforms” such as Alphabet’s Google were a “priority” that could result in either “law enforcement or policy options as solutions.”
Delrahim and Joe Simons, chair of the FTC, were witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel.
The Trump administration is in the early stages of investigating allegations that Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple used their clout illegally to hobble competitors.
Simons noted in his statement the FTC’s probe of Facebook, which the company acknowledged in July. Simons said the agency’s Technology Task Force was “up and running and actively investigating competitive activity in U.S. technology markets.” Senator Mike Lee, a Republican and subcommittee chair, pressed the agencies in opening remarks about how they were collaborating in their investigations.