For me?
These companies have gotten TOO BIG…..
Big companies monopolize sectors of the economy and then raise prices due to the lack of competition ….
Congress has been looking at legislation to counter the companies gobbling up market share…
Will anything come of it?
Maybe….
Maybe NOT….
But around the planet other countries are on the case…
“It is time for Congress to act,” Antitrust Subcommittee Chair David N. Cicilline (D-RI) said in a statement.
Heavily redacted internal Google documents appear to show, for example, how Google pressured mobile phone makers including Samsung to prioritize its own apps on their devices.
In a January 2014 email about recent meetings in South Korea with Samsung and LG, a Google executive describes “grave concerns” about a new Samsung service “competing with our core search experience.” Yet Google appeared open to Samsung launching a “smart assistant” service in China, where Google’s offerings are not available.
The newly released material, which also include emails and other documents from Amazon and Meta-owned Facebook, arrives as pressure is building on Congress, and in particular Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a bill that would block the internet giants from favoring their own products and services over those of competitors who rely on their platforms.
The legislation would prohibit Google and Apple from favoring their own apps over those offered by competitors, and prevent Amazon from giving priority to its private-label goods over competing retailers’ products.
In the 2014 memo the Google executive, whose name was redacted, described how the company pressured Samsung to steer users of Google’s Gmail service away from Samsung’s own email App.
And an executive from an unnamed phone maker pushed back against the high number of Google apps the company requires device makers to preinstall on their phones, saying that lowering the number would “help us deal with complaints from government, [non-governmental organizations] and end users.”
As part of its agreements with device makers using its Android operating system, Google requires that its Play app store and host of other apps come pre-installed on the phones. Several dozen state attorneys general sued Google last year over how it prioritizes its own apps and extracts steep commissions for in-app purchases. Its Android operating system is under antitrust scrutiny around the world…..