CNBC cited to AAI’s work showing weak merger enforcement in digital technology. The story “Congress is getting ready to grill top DOJ and FTC officials about being too lenient on Big Tech” cites AAI’s work and quotes Diana Moss. From the article:
But lawmakers worry those efforts are too little, too late. An analysis by the American Antitrust Institute of the past 30 years of competition in tech found that just five firms made more than 700 acquisitions during that time. Google and Microsoft each accounted for about a third, with Apple following with 15 percent of mergers. Between 2001 and 2017, as deals reached record highs, regulators only challenged one in federal court.
“It’s very weak merger enforcement,” said Diana Moss, head of the American Antitrust Institute.
But some experts say a more sweeping overhaul will be necessary for regulators to keep up with a fast-changing industry. Senate Democrats have previously proposed the creation of a modern-day trust buster charged with analyzing markets, handling consumer complaints and flagging cases to the FTC and DOJ. Now, there are growing calls for a single agency that can juggle the broad swath of concerns about the tech industry — not only antitrust, but also privacy, data protection and disinformation.
“If you load up antitrust with the sole responsibility with addressing every problem of Big Tech, that’s not going to work very well,” Moss said. “Antitrust isn’t built for all of that.”
