Reference no: EM133939320

Question

Antitrust enforcement agencies in both the United States and the EU have aggressively investigated alleged anti-competitive conduct by tech giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft etc. The major concerns are that these giants exercise so much power in the economy, not just in their own individual markets, that they often pose a genuine thread to competition throughout the economy. You may recall that back in the 1990s the Justice Department sued Microsoft because it was using its natural monopoly with its Windows operating systems to unlawfully leverage market dominance in the Internet browser market. At that time, Microsoft required anyone who purchased Windows to also purchase Internet Explorer. Microsoft with using its natural monopoly in the operating systems market to unlawfully obtain market dominance elsewhere. The EU also pursued investigations against Microsoft for the same activity in Europe. Both investigations resulted in substantial fines against Microsoft.

When the antitrust laws were first enacted the United States, there was a similar concern over the immense economic power that was concentrated in the hands of very few business concerns. At that time, the economic power related to the industrialization of the US economy. Businesses headed up by the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts, Mellons, and a few others were seen as having an intense dominance throughout the economy. The imprint of these behemoths covered almost everything in the US economy and was viewed as a genuine threat to competition. Today, there is a similar concern that the tech Giants exercise the same dominance or have the potential of exercising the same level of dominance that can stifle competition throughout the economy. When e-books emerged as a popular form of reading, there were many allegations that Google, Apple, and others were attempting to use their natural market dominance in their primary markets to obtain market dominance in the e-book market. There were allegations of price-fixing conspiracy between these tech Giants book publishers. There have been allegations that Google used it's natural monopoly in the search engine market to extend its market dominance to other areas where it did not have the same level of market share by manipulating the algorithms used with it search engine; somewhat similar to the accusations against Microsoft that it attempted to use its market dominance in the operation systems market to increase its market share in the browser market industry by tying the sales of Windows to the purchase of Internet Explorer.

Question: Because of antitrust investigations of tech companies such as these, how do you believe this antitrust concern will progress as the digital and tech industries continue to advance with products and services that permeate almost every aspect of our lives?