US Gov Panel Says Amazon, Facebook, Google Suppress Competition

New internal documents released by the US House Judiciary Committee have revealed how Amazon, Facebook and Google favoured their own products and abused their dominance to suppress competition from their rivals.

The new documents include internal Facebook documents, showing the company views itself as dominant in the social networking market and insulates itself from competitive threats.
“Other newly-released documents include Google internal communications demonstrating how it leverages its control over the Android mobile operating system to prevent smartphone manufacturers from introducing products or services that compete with Google’s family of mobile apps,” the House Judiciary Committee said in a statement on Tuesday.

Internal Amazon documents demonstrate how Amazon’s abuses its dominance over e-commerce to coerce third-party sellers to purchase other services from Amazon, such as fulfillment and distribution.

“From Amazon and Facebook to Google and Apple, there’s no question that these unregulated tech giants have become too big to care and too powerful to ever put people over profits,” said House Antitrust Subcommittee Vice Chair, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

“This report is clear: it’s time for Congress to act to protect consumers and promote competition. My Ending Platform Monopolies Act would be an important step towards reining in the power of Big Tech,” she added.

The report came as the US lawmakers push to approve stronger antitrust legislation by the end of the year.

The 450-page report details the findings and recommendations from a bipartisan investigation that included seven congressional hearings, the production of nearly 1.3 million internal documents and communications from the investigated firms and submissions from 38 antitrust experts.

“The findings and recommendations clearly show that it is long-past time for Congress to enact meaningful updates to our antitrust laws to address the lack of competition in digital markets and the monopoly power of dominant platforms like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

“The public wants Congress to act, and there is legislation that is ready for a vote on the floor of both the House and the Senate. I implore leadership to move this legislation quickly,” Nadler added.

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