WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration should extend antitrust cases against Google and Facebook to Alphabet and encourage the separation of companies, according to a group whose founder is working with the president-elect’s transition team .
The American Economic Liberties Project, an influential antitrust group based in Washington, issued a report with guidelines for antitrust executors 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 a major issue.
The report’s recommendations offer a glimpse into the thinking that could influence future policy formulation under the Biden administration.
The group urged the U.S. Department of Justice to make it clear that it will continue antitrust lawsuits against Google by expanding the scope of the litigation beyond searching maps, 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 the Biden administration to appoint aggressive FTC Department of Justice and antitrust defense agents and urges Biden Attorney General’s candidate Merrick Garland to “publicly commit to seeking a break from Google.”
“The antitrust movement is really young … We wanted to set out a vision that the people of a new administration can come together and use as a clear roadmap not only for what is possible but for what is necessary,” he said. said Miller to Reuters.
Proponents of this view want the application of antitrust law to move away from the current rule, which only contemplates whether consumers benefit from lower prices.
The report encourages antitrust agencies to challenge mergers involving a powerful buyer and calls on regulators to stop entering settlements with companies that do not require them to admit defaults.
Among other recommendations, it wants to remove non-compete clauses in employment agreements and end conflicts of interest, preventing companies from operating and competing on the same platform. For example, Amazon.com Inc. operates a market run by third-party sellers where it also competes.
The report also urges the FTC to prioritize filing an antitrust case against Amazon to harm competitors.
Nandita Bose reports to Washington; Edited by Cynthia Osterman