philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Change in Antitrust Thinking Could Be Problem for Big Tech

A shift in antitrust thinking is gaining momentum in the U.S. as regulators are increasingly scrutinizing Big Tech. Scholars are examining antitrust issues in a context that focuses on the clout of leading companies. Antitrust regulation has historically focused on consumer welfare and whether or not there is economic impact. In recent decades, tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have experienced massive growth by offering free or cheap digital services. “People might enjoy using the tech platforms but they are also asking, ‘What kind of society do we want?’” suggests Hal Singer of George Washington University’s Institute of Public Policy.

Many politicians appear to be ready to have that conversation. The New York Times reports that President Trump, House speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler and the Justice Department assistant attorney general for the antitrust division Makan Delrahim all “endorsed in their own ways a heightened scrutiny of the tech behemoths,” with Delrahim “rejecting the consumer welfare standard as the sole determinant of harm.”

The Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890, never defined the word “monopoly,” but the changing economy at that time created a “fear of the future.” “The rising fear of the day was that honest, hardworking people are being screwed and the system is rigged,” said College of the Holy Cross historian Edward T. O’Donnell, author of “Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality: Progress and Poverty in the Gilded Age.”

By contrast, Google has 92 percent of the worldwide search market, Facebook has 70 percent of the social media market and Amazon about 38 percent of the e-commerce market in the U.S. NYT reports that, in the Brown Shoe case, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that “the protection of viable, small, locally owned businesses” was a priority, even if “occasional higher costs and prices” might be the result.

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/tackling-antitrust-in-big-tech-may-require-reimagining-law/