A panel of US House of Representatives established earlier today that four major technology companies are abusing their market power to destroy rivals and force small businesses to their knees in the name of profit.
According to the antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook should not control and compete in the same business. The panel suggested these companies should be restructured but did not reveal whether a specific company should be broken up, as per the Reuters report.
The full report is 449 pages long and suggests expansive changes to antitrust law and described “dozens of instances where companies misused their power”. It also revealed how companies did everything they could to dominate over competitors in order to control large portions of the internet.
One example is Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram back in 2012, when Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, noted the photo-sharing platform is building a competitive network that could be “very disruptive to us”, the report reads.
Changes suggested by the committee include stopping Google to both run the auctions for online ad space and participate in those auctions. Another suggestion is for Amazon to stop operating on markets where it also competes with other retailers, but the report also urged US Congress to act on allowing antitrust enforcers more freedom to stop purchases of potential rivals.
The report was published by a committee led by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline. Reuters noted that if the presidential elections are won by Joe Biden, the Democratic majority in the House might keep pressuring Congress to act on the findings and introduce a revamped antitrust law.
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