It was seen to come after open investigations by the US government and the appearance in Congress, this summer, of the leaders of the companies of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google. The battle in the courts against the technological giants sued for monopoly has only just begun, and after the lawsuit against Google for abuse of market dominance comes the complaint directed to Facebook filed by the Federal Trade Commission of the United States and 48 prosecutors.
The reasons? Alleged business conduct that threatens the free exercise of competition, illegally acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp, or depriving citizens of the advantages of a competitive market. According to the plaintiffs, the solution to these problems is for the court to force Facebook to divest assets or apply restructuring in the business. The company exceeds the value of 800,000 million euros with 6.600 million active unique users per month. Its latest acquisitions have boosted, even more, if possible, the popularity it
What other antitrust investigations are underway?
The one that affects Google by monopolizing internet searches and search engine advertising. Google defends itself by arguing that this is the preferred search engine because consumers so decide and not because there are no alternatives.
That of Amazon, due to suspicions of anticompetitive conduct in its treatment of other sellers who use the platform to reach the consumer.
Both the Democratic and Republican Parties are in favour of controlling the power of the so-called GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple). There is no consensus, however, on how to do this. In addition, there is a legal loophole that complicates the process, and that is that "they do not conform to the traditional concept of monopoly", as the lawyer Paloma Llaneza points out, since "many of the services in question are offered free of charge."
How do these monopolies affect us if we are entrepreneurs?
The advantages of using these tools are well known, but what about the drawbacks of resisting entering the game and not hiring advertising or not paying for the services they offer? That's where the problems start, especially for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
In Google's case, paying is often a necessary tool if you want to appear in search results. Small entrepreneurs who try to avoid going through Google's hoop claim that most of the seemingly organic results are sponsored ads, and that if you don't pay to appear on Google Shopping, for example, it is difficult for potential customers to find you.
With regard to Facebook, its undeniable success in the social media sector influences the fact that, by extension, online advertising through it is the most in-demand. This means that, when you design a digital marketing strategy in social media, a good part of the investment goes to the most powerful networks, Facebook and Instagram par excellence. The Amazon Marketplace is not spared from criticism either by, in theory, favouring its own offers and those of sellers who use its logistics services.
As we can see, there are many reasons that have caused chips to begin to move on the board to limit the enormous power of these companies. How far will the effort go? Will you achieve your goals?
I definitely think these big companies should be broken up and they have become too big with all those acquisitions.