Online platforms should be separated from other business lines
A report by the House Antitrust Subcommittee in Washington concludes that America’s largest technology companies are stifling competition, reports the Wall Street Journal. It describes Facebook and Google as having monopoly power, while Apple and Amazon have ‘significant and durable’ market power, and concludes that options including the separation of the companies’ dominant platforms from their other businesses should be considered. The report also suggested changes to antitrust laws. The companies disagreed with the panel’s findings. Amazon said that ‘the presumption that success can only be the result of anti-competitive behaviour is simply wrong’, while Apple pointed out that it doesn’t have a dominant market share in any of its categories. The Consumer Technology Association responded to the report by saying that ‘to undercut our nation’s crown jewel companies would take our competitiveness out at the knees’.
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