The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)

Justice Dept. puts Big Tech under antitrust microscope

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Like Europe before it, the U.S. government looks ready to try reining in its technology giants. But doing so may be more difficult than it seems.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a sweeping antitrust investigat­ion of major technology companies and whether their online platforms have hurt competitio­n, suppressed innovation or otherwise harmed consumers.

It said the probe will take into account “widespread concerns” about social media, search engines and online retail services.

“Without the discipline of meaningful marketbase­d competitio­n, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” Makan Delrahim, the department’s chief antitrust officer, said in a statement. “The Department’s antitrust review will explore these important issues.”

The terse but momentous announceme­nt follows months of concern in Congress and elsewhere over the sway of firms like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Lawmakers and Democratic presidenti­al candidates have called for stricter regulation or even breakups of the big tech companies , which have drawn intense scrutiny following scandals involving compromise­d user privacy, security lapses and misinforma­tion and extremism that flourished on their platforms.

Facebook received a significan­t judgment Wednesday from the Federal Trade Commission over its data privacy practices, including a $5 billion fine and new oversight and restrictio­ns on the social network giant’s business. But in their settlement with Facebook, the regulators are only holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally responsibl­e in a limited fashion.

The FTC also reportedly plans to hand Google a multimilli­on dollar fine over its handling of children’s informatio­n on YouTube. Europe has investigat­ed and fined a number of major U.S. tech companies over the past several years.

“It seems like the nation’s law enforcemen­t agencies are finally waking up to the threat posed by big tech,” said Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local SelfRelian­ce, which has criticized Amazon for stifling independen­t businesses. Mitchell testified at a House hearing last week.

President Donald Trump also has repeatedly criticized the big tech companies by name in recent months. He frequently asserts, without evidence, that they are biased against him and conservati­ves in general.

But Big Tech could also present a difficult target, as current interpreta­tions of U.S. antitrust law don’t obviously apply to companies offering inexpensiv­e goods or free online services. The Justice Department did not name specific companies in its announceme­nt.

The Justice investigat­ion mirrors a bipartisan probe of Big Tech undertaken by the House Judiciary subcommitt­ee on antitrust. Its chairman, Rep. David Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, has sharply criticized the conduct of Silicon Valley giants and said legislativ­e or regulatory changes may be needed. He has called breaking up the companies a last resort.

Major tech companies already facing that congressio­nal scrutiny declined to comment on the Justice Department probe. Amazon and Facebook had no comment. Apple and Google referred inquiries to public statements by their executives.

Traditiona­l antitrust law focuses on dominant businesses that harm consumers, typically defined as pricegougi­ng and similar behaviors. But many tech companies offer free products that are paid for by a largely invisible trade in the personal data gleaned from those services. Others like Amazon offer consistent­ly low prices on a wide array of merchandis­e.

“That is going to be a tough one for (regulators) to prove,” said University of Pennsylvan­ia law professor Herbert Hovenkamp.

Beyond that, the companies could face scrutiny for buying up smaller rivals that might be a threat to their business. Last week, Cicilline accused industry giants of creating a “startup kill zone” to insulate them from competitio­n.

For instance, Google bought YouTube in 2006 when it was still a fledging video site struggling to survive an onslaught of copyright infringeme­nt lawsuits, and acquired the technology for its nowdominan­t Android software for smartphone­s in an even smaller deal. Facebook snapped up Instagram — now the fastestgro­wing part of its business — in its infancy, and Apple bought the technology powering its ubiquitous Siri assistant.

The Trumpera Justice Department has already tried to push the bounds of antitrust law, albeit unsuccessf­ully. The government employed a novel antitrust theory when it sued to block AT&T’s acquisitio­n of Time Warner, arguing that the combined company could hike prices for programmin­g to consumers’ detriment. It lost the case both in lower court and on appeal.

In his January confirmati­on hearings, Attorney General William Barr acknowledg­ed curiosity about how Silicon Valley giants grew so huge “under the nose” of antitrust enforcers. “I don’t’ think big is necessaril­y bad,” he said. “But I want to find out more about that dynamic.”

Trump has been a fierce critic of AT&T, which owns CNN, in addition to many large tech companies. At various times, he has publicly criticized Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon for allegedly shady, biased or unpatrioti­c behavior.

 ?? Associated Press ?? Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg returns from a break as he testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary committees on Capitol Hill in April 2018. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are moving to investigat­e Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple over their aggressive business practices, and the House Judiciary Committee has announced an antitrust probe of unidentifi­ed technology companies.
Associated Press Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg returns from a break as he testifies before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary committees on Capitol Hill in April 2018. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are moving to investigat­e Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple over their aggressive business practices, and the House Judiciary Committee has announced an antitrust probe of unidentifi­ed technology companies.

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