The US authorities are preparing to launch a large-scale investigation toward Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to verify possible violations of antitrust laws on their part, Reuters reported referring to sources.
According to these data, the powers in the investigation will be divided between the US Federal Trade Commission, which will take under the supervision of Amazon and Facebook, and the Department of Justice, which will Apple and Google.
At the same time, the democrats in the House of Representatives of the US Congress announced the start of their own investigation on Monday. They intend to test the activities of the above mentioned companies, as well as other technology giants, to determine whether these companies have become too large and influential, thus threatening fair competition and consumer interests.
According to Congressman David Cicilline, who announced the start of the investigation, it will not be directed against any specific companies and its goal will be to study how the entire industry works. He noted that the Democrats are planning to organize hearings to which the heads of major companies can be invited, as well as to request documents, including through the agenda, if necessary. Refusal to comply with such an agenda is considered disrespectful to Congress in the United States and may be prosecuted, TASS reported.
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Department of Justice is preparing to investigate Google in order to determine whether the company owning the world's largest online advertising platform does not use its market position to stifle smaller competitors by disrupting thereby fair competition law.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump made statements that the administrations of the largest social networks Facebook and Twitter, as well as the Google search engine, suppress the voices of a conservative audience and hide positive information and news about the situation in the US during his presidency. He also pointed to the allegedly fraudulent search for news about him.
