Over the years, the U.S. government has broken some of the monopolies that were considered too large and powerful for the good of the people. Standard Oil was split in 1911 into 34 separate companies. 71 years later, AT&T controls every aspect of the telephone industry; It was also the main supplier of mobile phones to the Western Electric unit. Breaking this monopoly created a number of “baby bells”. Ironically, this regional bell is proving that many companies can merge with each other to reunite Humpty Dumpty to create a new AT&T.
With breakdowns in mind, one area that Congress is seriously considering is technology.
CNBC reports today After 16 months of testing, a
Democratic Congress Staff Report It concluded Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are the monopolies that the government should address. The report weighs about 450 pages and includes CEOs Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Sunder Pichai (alphabet, Google’s parents). They also ran
1.3 Millions of documents.
The House report suggests that mergers between leading technology companies should automatically be considered anti-competitive.
In the report, the staff members said, “Simply put, the under-founding companies that once eroded and challenged the status quo have become the monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railway imperialism. Despite these companies, the dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google has come at a price.
The Federal Trade Commission, a major U.S. trust agency
Separation of leading parent companies from some of their small business units is among some of the suggestions made in the report. Examples include coercion Google does not remove YouTube or force Facebook to control Instagram and WhatsApp. Another report suggests that anti-competitive institutions should automatically assume that any merger involving “dominant platforms” is anti-competitive and will lead to such behavior. Instead, once a transaction is declared, both companies involved in a merger are entrusted with the task of proving that their transaction does not harm the competition; Currently, it is the responsibility of organizations such as the DOJ to ensure that mergers lead to competitive issues.
The report also recommends that instead of allowing leading platforms to choose their own services, they should force other companies to provide “equal conditions for similar products and services.” Staff members want these “leading platforms” to see their services compatible with competitors, and to raise budgets for agencies involved in anti-competitive practices, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice’s no-confidence division.
Republicans opposed the issues and proposals in the report with Jim Jordan of the Republic of Ohio. Instead of focusing on the potential anti-competitive behavior of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, Jordan used it to complain about how the four technology companies mentioned above are biased towards the Conservatives.
The report accused the Facebook company To slow down and destroy an emerging and emerging competitor to buy back $ 1 billion in Instagram in 2012. In addition, the memorandum found by the commission found that after the acquisition of Facebook and Instagram, there was an internal discussion about how Instagram could be stopped from challenging Facebook in certain markets. This internal relationship is considered anti-competitive.
The App Store is where staff find the company to be anti-competitive
With 40% -50% of online sales in the US, Amazon does not produce a free market with the power over its third party sellers. According to the report, “Amazon has engaged in widespread anti-competitive behavior when it comes to treating third-party sellers. Amazon publicly describes third-party sellers as ‘partners’, but internal documents indicate that the company behind closed doors calls them” internal competitors “. But Amazon says it is not in its best interests to act against third-party vendors on its platform.
Thanks to its wall garden, the Apple Store focuses on Apple’s anti-competitive behavior.
As we have shown many times to count, the Apple Store is the center of Apple’s anti – competitive behavior. Apple does not allow iOS users to install apps from platforms other than the App Store. This gives Apple control over app pricing and distribution. Yes, it’s an epic problem. The report states: “In the absence of competition, Apple’s monopoly power over software distribution for iOS devices has hurt competitors and competitors, reducing quality and innovation among app developers and increasing prices and reducing consumer choice. Last year, the App Store in the provinces generated $ 138 million in revenue, with third-party developers holding 85% of the total.
The staff concluded that Google was a monopoly on search and search ads. The report states, “Many market participants have likened Google to a gatekeeper who extorts users to access its critical distribution channel, and its search page shows less relevant results to users.” Google responds, “Google’s free products, Search, Maps, and Gmail help millions of Americans. We have invested billions of dollars in research and development to build and improve them. We do not agree with current reports, including outdated and false allegations, from commercial rivals about searches and other services.
These investigations have the support of the U.S. population. In fact, 85% of these online platforms are 81% concerned about the amount of data they have, and they are concerned that this data collection is only a prelude to these companies gathering more information about them. 58% do not believe their search results are unbiased. 79% say large technology integrations are bad for competition and consumer choice. Also, 60% would like to see online platform regulation and the ability to switch from one platform to another without losing data or contacts.
