WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden government should expand antitrust cases against Alphabet’s Google and Facebook and encourage business breakups, according to a group whose founder works with the president-elect’s transition team.
The American Economic Liberties Project, an influential Washington-based anti-monopoly group, released a report containing guidelines for antitrust enforcers in the next administration. The group is led by Sarah Miller, who works with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and has been instrumental in making antitrust enforcement against Big Tech mainstream.
The report’s recommendations provide a glimpse into thinking that could influence future policy-making under the Biden administration.
The group urged the U.S. Department of Justice to make it clear that it will continue its antitrust action against Google by expanding the scope of litigation beyond just mapping, travel, and its app store.
The Justice Department sued Google on Oct. 20, accusing the company of $ 1 trillion of dominating search and advertising. In December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Facebook, saying the company was using a “buy or bury” strategy to hurt rivals.
The report calls on Biden’s government to appoint aggressive justice and FTC antitrust enforcers and urges Biden’s attorney general candidate, Merrick Garland, to “publicly commit to seeking a Google breakup.”
“The anti-monopoly movement is very young … We wanted to create a vision that people in a new administration can rally and use as a clear roadmap for not only what is possible but also what is needed,” Miller told Reuters.
Proponents of this view want antitrust enforcement to deviate from the prevailing standard that only looks at whether consumers benefit from lower prices.
The report encourages antitrust agencies to challenge mergers involving a powerful buyer and calls on regulators to stop settling with companies that do not require them to admit wrongdoing.
Among other things, it aims to end the non-competition clause in working arrangements and to end conflicts of interest by preventing companies from operating and competing on the same platform. For example, Amazon.com Inc operates a seller-driven third-party marketplace where it also competes.
The report also urges the FTC to prioritize an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon for harming competitors.
Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman