© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division presided over two antitrust cases against Google.Google has quietly amassed the ranks of former Justice Department lawyers as the tech giant prepares for a lifelong settlement battle against the lawyer's former employer.
The attacks on the Justice Department, two lawsuits seeking to undermine the search giant's dominance, are being fought in court, reflecting a year-long effort by the Biden administration after a major no-confidence package stalled in Congress.
When President Biden took office, he chose TrustBusters to lead the flagship agency amid bipartisan calls to limit the power of the Internet's largest companies over the digital economy. But midway through his term, the movement's losses outweigh its wins, key figures are resigning and Republican control of the House of Representatives has sidelined a bill that could crush the tech giant.
Now the matter has moved from Congress to the courts. Last month, the Justice Department and eight states filed suit to destroy Google's lucrative advertising business, while President Donald Trump's 2020 lawsuit alleging it monopolizes online search will be heard at the end of the year. Meanwhile, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Lina Khan, an antitrust activist, is leading an ambitious series of lawsuits aimed at destroying Facebook parent company Meta and preventing heavyweights like Microsoft from undercutting small businesses as they try to rewrite federal antitrust rules. Law and last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, a case that may weaken the domain of corporate responsibility on the Internet.
Antitrust reformers, who cheered when Biden tapped Khan to chair the FTC, have Jonathan Cantor to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division and Tim Wu, the chief big tech critic, as White House special counsel in their efforts to protect restrictions on the world's richest companies. Reconfirmed. : , is still gaining momentum despite a series of high-profile setbacks But the tech industry is willing to pay big to compete. And persuading the courts to reconsider decades of business precedent is as difficult a task as pushing legislation through a divided Congress.
© Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images Visitors enter the Amazon showroom at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on January 6."Some people came into this government fully believing that they knew how this industry should work ... and they just approved an agenda that said, 'We're going to fix this,'" said Mark Jamieson, non-resident senior right group member. American Institute of Economics program, he said, "now stutters."
However, the company said that they are involved recently.
The Google case is part of an antitrust suit filed by Kanter's Department of Justice and Khan's FTC against some of the biggest players in industries ranging from technology to pharmaceuticals to book publishing. In December, the FTC tried to block Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of gaming company Activision Blizzard as part of a new strategy to keep the overall business afloat for the long term.
Such moves restate the government's argument that competition policy, rooted for decades in the free-market ideals of the 1980s, must be retooled for the Internet age.
At Justice, Kanter created a new litigation team and hired about 20 lawyers to prepare for the department's biggest antitrust fight in decades.
But tech heavyweights are digging deep into their pockets as they prepare for a court battle that could shape the future of the digital economy. Google itself has hired at least five former judge attorneys at the Department of Home Affairs, including Jack Melin, a former federal antitrust attorney who now serves as a strategic adviser to the company. The firm has also engaged the services of four outside law firms, including about 20 former attorneys
"New entrants and new innovations drive competition and deliver value for American consumers, publishers and retailers," said Google spokeswoman Julie Taralo McAllister. "We are proud of our accomplishments and look forward to taking our case to court."
Lawmakers who support antitrust laws say unprecedented industry lobbying is a significant barrier to passage.
The bipartisan antitrust packages, which have been in the works for years, would rewrite the rules of the online economy to prevent companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook from using their own platforms to promote their products or restricting competitors from becoming subscribers to their platforms. . David N. Led by Cicilini (DR.I.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.), it also has the support of mid-tier tech companies, including Yelp and Sonos.
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard J.After the tech lobby raised concerns about the bill, Democratic leaders never voted on it, and House Republicans were seen as unlikely to pass it.
"It's a shame we didn't even get a vote," said Stacey Mitchell, co-executive director of the Institute for Self, a local nonprofit that fights corporate consolidation.
Wu has left the White House, and Cecilia announced last week that she will leave Congress after her current term.
It's unclear whether judges will accept the new vanguard antitrust theory without new legislation to support it. Earlier this month, a federal district court in California dealt the FTC a devastating defeat, upholding Meta's acquisition of developer VR, seen as a test of the agency's aggressive new stance against incumbents trying to dominate emerging industries by buying dominant positions. . startup
Judge Edward J. Davila acknowledged the FTC's controversial theory that the deal could weaken "potential competition" in the growing virtual reality space, which some experts interpreted as a sign that the court might be open to such an argument. But it decided the FTC couldn't prove its case.
After the decision, FTC enforcers were optimistic. "To advance the law and protect competition, we must pursue tough cases like this," said Holly Vedova, director of the agency's Office of Competition. "There is some risk, but Congress has directed us to do this." In the end, according to Vedova, "it was worth it".
© Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images The Justice Department and states including California, New York, Colorado and Virginia have sued Google over the company's dominance of the online advertising market.George Washington University law professor William Kovacic said the FTC doesn't have to win all cases to advance antitrust enforcement, but it does have to win some cases.
"If we ask, how can there be permanent political reform, lasting reform?" I think part of the answer is if you win a case, you win a case that validates your idea," Kovacic said. "Until you do that, you haven't really changed the scope of enforcement."
The agency has drawn criticism for taking on high-risk cases at a time when resources were tight. The FTC's budget has grown to $430 million in fiscal year 2023, up from $376 million last year, but now has two-thirds the staff it had in 1980.
"After all, we argue, they are more than our dozens of lawyers and economists," Vedova said. "Our biggest investigations and trials probably employ more law firms than we do private lawyers."
But Khan, Kanter and some longtime antitrust advocates leading the lobbying movement in the U.K. Biden administration see signs of progress. They say the impetus to revive antitrust enforcement and competition policy in the U.S. is a long-term sea change that they had always expected would take years.
© Rong Xu Photo Washington Post Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan has been a longtime crusader against monopolistic trade practices.Provisions in last year's bill, which increased antitrust enforcement resources and made it easier for states to prosecute antitrust cases, represented "the first significant antitrust legislation in 50 years," Mitchell said. The FTC's November policy statement on unfair competitive practices, he added, could provide a basis for addressing some of the conduct that triggers antitrust laws. And his ongoing project to revise federal merger guidelines could lead to a "fundamental reshaping of the government's position on big business."
A successful Justice Department case to block major mergers in the publishing industry could have serious technological implications, said Barry Lynn, executive director of the Antitrust Open Market Institute. Decades after the antitrust benchmark was a so-called consumer protection standard that focused on consumer prices, judges are beginning to reconsider the idea that corporate power can harm retailers, small businesses or even democracy.
But Kovacic said the window to make those gains may be limited because Republican views on the agencies' aggressive approach are off to a rocky start ahead of the 2024 elections, in which Congress and the White House are competing.
"One of the themes they developed was that the FTC was operating without effective oversight ... that it was a capricious agency," he said of Republican leaders. "I think it's made up, but that's a story they're trying to make."
Meanwhile, market changes could reduce the tech giants' incentive to break up, said Herbert Hovenkamp, a University of Pennsylvania professor who studies antitrust law. TikTok's growth is eroding Meta's growth, and Microsoft's use of AI in search challenges Google to ensure the market is still competitive, he said.
"There's a strong mindset that dominant companies come and go," says Hovenkamp. "And at this point, all the aggressiveness of technology is too soon, because the competition itself will become much more than what they already have."
Cicilline said in an interview that he did not leave office because of the failure of Congress to pass no-confidence laws during his previous term. "I think this antitrust agenda will continue to be very strong and bipartisan after I'm gone," he said. Cicilline and Buck, the former top Republican on the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, are in the process of forming a new bipartisan Congressional Antitrust Caucus.
© Salwan Georges/The Washington Post Correspondent. David N. Ciciline (DR.I.) believes Congress will continue to pursue tougher antitrust laws after leaving the House.He acknowledged that there are obstacles in the Republican-controlled DRC. The new chairman of the judicial commission. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) spoke out against antitrust laws introduced in the last Congress. ড্যান বাক সিসিলিয়ানাকে প্রতিস্থাপন করেছেন অ্যান্টিট্রাস্ট সাবকমিটির চেয়ারম্যান হিসেবে, প্রতিনিধিত্ব করছেন। Thomas Massin (R-Ky.), যিনি ব্যবসার একজন মহান বন্ধু হিসেবে বিবেচিত।
"এটা ছিল যেন তিনি সিলিকন ভ্যালির প্রতিনিধিত্ব করেছিলেন," সিসিলিন জর্ডান সম্পর্কে বলেছিলেন। "তিনি আমেরিকার সবচেয়ে বড় প্রযুক্তি পৃষ্ঠপোষক হয়ে উঠেছেন।"
সিসিলিন সতর্ক করেছিলেন যে কংগ্রেসের একটি বিল পাস করতে যত বেশি সময় লাগবে, তত কঠিন হবে। "দুর্ভাগ্যবশত," তিনি বলেছিলেন, "তাদের ক্ষমতা কেবল বাড়বে।"
এই মাসের শুরুর দিকে একটি অবিশ্বাস বক্তৃতায়, সেন. এলিজাবেথ ওয়ারেন (ডি-মাস।) একটি দৃঢ় সুরে আঘাত করেছিলেন। 2020 সালের ডেমোক্রেটিক প্রাইমারীতে "বড় প্রযুক্তি ভাঙার" জন্য এটি ওয়ারেনের আহ্বান ছিল, যাকে কেউ কেউ র্যাডিক্যাল বলে মনে করেন যা কলটিকে রাজনৈতিক মূলধারায় ঠেলে দিতে সাহায্য করেছিল।
"অবশ্যই, ডেভিড বনাম গলিয়াথ যুদ্ধে একচেটিয়া ভাঙ্গন এবং প্রতিযোগিতাকে উন্নতি লাভের অনুমতি দেওয়ার জন্য, বাজি এখনও গোলিয়াথের উপর রয়েছে," ওয়ারেন বলেছিলেন। "কিন্তু ডেভিডরা পাথর ছুঁড়েছিল, এবং দৈত্যরা ঘামতে শুরু করেছিল। আমরা এটা অনুভব করি। পরিবর্তন আসছে
