Skip to content

What to know about Trump's Antitrust -efforts against tech giants

    The Trump administration does not leave the technical giants.

    On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission Meta will be confronted in court because of the claims that the social media giant giant has hugged rising competitors when he bought Instagram and WhatsApp. And on April 21, the Ministry of Justice will claim that a federal right -hand Google must force Google to sell his Chrome web browser to limit the power of his search monopoly.

    Both cases, which helped to initiate a new era of Antitrust investigation, were submitted during the first term of office of President Trump. They were advanced by the Biden Administration, which also filed monopolic lawsuits against Amazon, Apple and Google's advertising technology activities.

    Investors in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street hoped that Mr Trump would show technology companies more respectfully during his second term, as he promised to deregulate industries. Some legal experts think that the administration can still take a lighter hand on blocking mergers and setting proactive regulations for technology.

    But so far, Mr. Trump has promised to continue a large part of the research of the largest technology companies, despite the hope of the industry.

    “I think they may not have focused entirely on how much the first Trump presidency had to do with initiating this re-examination of technology” said Bill Kovacic, a former FTC chairman.

    This is what to know.

    Mr. Trump appointed Andrew Ferguson as chairman of the FTC, who enforces the antitrust and consumer protection laws. Mr. Ferguson, a lawyer who has spent a large part of his career with works for powerful Republican senators, said that he wants to increase the investigation in the ways in which social media companies decide to take posts. Conservatives have complained for years that platforms such as Facebook and YouTube censor disproportionately leaning points of view.

    “I will throw every source that the agency has when continuing the things we worked,” said Mr. Ferguson this year in an appearance on the Bloomberg -Podcast “Odd Lots”.

    The new leader of the antitrust department of the Ministry of Justice, Gail Slater, a vetera playing and media lawyer, worked in the White House during the first term of Mr Trump. She has also promised to enforce antitrust laws aggressively.

    “It is now a two-part issue, and there is a consensus about the need for robust enforcement of Antitrust,” said Mrs. Slater during an event that was organized this month by Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley Start-Up Accelerator, who has insisted on a more antitrust examination of the technical giants.

    Five government affairs accuse technology companies of maintaining illegal monopolies, and they all go through the courts. The companies deny the allegations.

    • The FTC suggested Meta in 2020 and claimed that the acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 on the Schonden Act by using what regulators call a “Buy of Bury” strategy to eliminate its budding rivals. The test is expected to take until July and testimony to high -profile figures, including the Chief Executive of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg.

    • The Ministry of Justice sued Google in 2020 due to claims that it had a monopoly in online search. A federal court ruled for the government last year and will convene a hearing of about three weeks about tackling Google's monopoly. The government has suggested that the company is selling Chrome, among other things. Google has proposed fewer restrictions and has said that it intends to appeal.

    • In 2023, the Ministry of Justice accused Google of illegally dominating advertising technology. A federal judge heard arguments in that case last year and a decision will soon be expected.

    • The FTC accused Amazon in a 2023 lawsuit of pinching small traders who use his market place to sell to consumers. A federal court rejected Amazon's attempt to reject the case last year. It is planned to come to court next year.

    • Last year, the Ministry of Justice sued Apple because of claiming that it makes it difficult for consumers to dump their iPhones and iPads with each other. Apple has asked a federal judge to reject the lawsuit.

    The Biden Administration tried and failed to block countless technical deals, including the purchase of meta through a small start-up of Virtual Reality, inside. The urge to stop acquisitions indignant investors who support small companies who want to cash in on by being taken over by a technology giant.

    Mr. Trump's arranged say they want to avoid acquisitions that are not a competitive problem. Mrs. Slater has expressed an openness for proposing settlements of companies – such as selling similar assets – that can help solve concerns about deals.

    At the end of January, the Ministry of Justice sued the business software company Hewlett Packard Enterprise to buy Juniper Networks, a network company, for $ 14 billion. It was the first lawsuit to have a technical deal in the second term of Mr. Trump disputed.

    During the first Trump administration, the Ministry of Justice in vain challenged the purchase of Time Warner from AT&T.

    Last year the Ministry of Justice and the FTC agreed to divide responsibility for investigating whether the biggest players were violating antitrust laws in artificial intelligence. The Ministry of Justice started investigating Nvidia, while the FTC Microsoft and his partner, OpenAi, took.

    It is unclear whether those investigations will lead to lawsuits. The Trump administration has promised to erase the way for American companies to develop AI, including the withdrawal of an Executive Order of Biden era that Vangraails has put on the use of technology.

    The administration has asked the input of the industry how to best continue with policy on technology, an opening that started lobbying companies and investors for fewer rules.

    “I think it is extremely important that we protect the competition in the AI ​​space, but I think it is just as important that the government is not racing to regulate AI,” Mr Ferguson said in March on Bloomberg TV.