Google’s parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple,
Facebook and Microsoft carried out hundreds of deals in recent years that were
too small to be reported to authorities for approval, the Federal Trade
Commission heard at its meeting.
Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter said regulators
need this type of broader perspective, and that reviewing acquisitions
individually was insufficient.
“I think of serial acquisitions as a Pac-Man
strategy: each individual merger, viewed independently, may not seem to have a
significant impact,” her prepared comments said.
“The collective impact of hundreds of smaller
acquisitions can lead to a monopolistic behemoth.”
She spoke as the commission heard findings
from a study launched in February of last year into over 600 acquisitions by
the tech titans from 2010-19, some of which were below the threshold for
reporting.
Appointments to the FTC and the Department of
Justice in US President Joe Biden's administration have signaled ramped up
anti-trust enforcement, amid calls by some to break up some of the biggest and
most successful Big Tech firms.
FTC has filed suit against Facebook, alleging
it used “anticompetitive acquisitions” of potential rivals such as Instagram
and WhatsApp to protect its dominance.
Additionally, the Justice Department’s
antitrust division said it is working with the commission to carefully review
its guidelines on “harmful mergers” such as big firms gobbling up small
operators in markets.
“The Department of Justice is conducting a
careful review of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the Vertical Merger
Guidelines to ensure they are appropriately skeptical of harmful mergers,”
acting attorney general Richard Powers said in a release.
FTC chair Lina Khan noted Big Tech companies
have devoted “tremendous resources” on acquisitions that are “largely outside
of our purview”.
“This study underscores the need for us to
closely examine reporting requirements... and to identify areas where the FTC
may have created loopholes that are unjustifiably enabling deals to fly under
the radar.”
Facebook in July filed a formal request calling
for the recusal of Khan in any antitrust action against the social media giant,
arguing that she is biased and cannot rule impartially.
The move follows a similar request from Amazon
in anticipation of a wave of antitrust enforcement action against Big Tech
firms from the regulatory agency under its leader appointed by Biden.
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