By: John Garrasi
Earlier this month, Apple was fined almost two billion dollars by the European Commission over restrictions placed on App Store access to third parties. At the same time, an U.S. judge ruled that Alphabet’s Google would not be saved from having to face claims of monopolization in the online ad business. Amazon currently faces a domestic antitrust case brought by Lina Khan’s FTC that threatens its grip over emcommerce. Microsoft’s involvement with multiple AI companies is beginning to draw the scrutiny of regulators across the globe. Oh the times, they are, a-changin’.
For many decades, Antitrust law was in a defunct state of non-enforcement. Apathetic regulators gave rise to the new titans of industry in the twenty-first century: Big Tech corporations siphon data from their users every minute of the day, selling it in vast quantities to the highest bidder. The breathtaking sophistication and expanse of their operations have only begun to be understood by Antitrust enforcers, and yet some argue that these titans of their industries are already too big to subject themselves to the whims of whichever administration currently holds office. The limitless profits generated annually by the corporate actors seemingly place them outside the realm of legal ramifications for their anticompetitive behavior. Largely left to their own devices over the last several decades, tech giants have enjoyed little oversight. Increasingly, however, they face a veritable hurricane of bad publicity due to lax security, privacy concerns, and price gouging. Finally, there seems to be a global pushback in the making.
Last year, the European Union introduced both the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Both of these were developed in an effort to reshape the online space in ways that curbed Big Tech’s overreach and provided for greater transparency. The EU also stands ready to fine Apple more than $500 million euros for prohibiting app developers from pointing users towards lower-cost alternatives to the native App Store purchasing options. While Antitrust Law may have laid dormant for a majority of the twentieth century in America, regulators abroad appear ready to pick up the mantle and set a new tone for protecting not only consumers, but democracies across the world from the influence wielded by technological firms that have grown beyond control to the detriment of otherwise competitive markets.
This will not be an easy transition, and will likely take years before effects are seen on a wider scale in the U.S.. Already, Congress appears poised as an obstacle for regulators seeking greater control over investigations. And think tanks across the country continue to churn out piece after piece, regurgitating the same tired tropes extolling the values of limitless growth and corporate profits, repackaged in new and existing language for the “finance bros” of reddit to share across social platforms. Indeed, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Chicago School of thought and leaders of the anti-antitrust movement such as Robert Bork have made it fashionable to proudly and openly declare that more monopolization and less competition is actually great for the world economy.
A new generation of enforcers led by Lina Khan’s reinvigorated FTC and an army of law students loyal to the cause appear undaunted by this challenge. Inspired by the current’s administrations focus on antitrust enforcement and promise to bolster funding, a new generation focused on competition law seeks to level the playing field and return fairness to the online space. If successful, the online world could be reshaped in ways that are difficult to imagine. Already, the actions taken by the EU to increase transparency with tech giants such as Google present the possibility that the entire ad model for online companies will be upended. While this renewed sense of enforcement will no doubt have an immediate chilling effect on investments in the tech space, larger corporations will likely not garner much sympathy in their plight.
Student Bio: John Garrasi is a second-year student at Suffolk University Law School. He is a staff writer on the Journal of High Technology Law, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
