Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Don’t expect Starlink in South Africa anytime soon

      24 June 2025

      Home affairs under fire

      24 June 2025

      Samsung to unveil new folding phones at July event

      24 June 2025

      Capital Appreciation banks on payments to offset software slump

      24 June 2025

      Crypto is becoming a ‘practical payment method’ in South Africa

      24 June 2025
    • World

      Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines hits $10-billion valuation

      24 June 2025

      Watch | Starship rocket explodes in setback to Musk’s Mars mission

      19 June 2025

      Trump Mobile dials into politics, profit and patriarchy

      17 June 2025

      Samsung plots health data hub to link users and doctors in real time

      17 June 2025

      Beijing’s chip champions blacklisted by Taiwan

      16 June 2025
    • In-depth

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025

      Digital fortress: We go inside JB5, Teraco’s giant new AI-ready data centre

      30 May 2025

      Sam Altman and Jony Ive’s big bet to out-Apple Apple

      22 May 2025
    • TCS

      TechCentral Nexus S0E3: Behind Takealot’s revenue surge

      23 June 2025

      TCS | South Africa’s Sociable wants to make social media social again

      23 June 2025

      TCS+ | AfriGIS’s Helen Hulett on how tech can help resolve South Africa’s water crisis

      18 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E2: South Africa’s digital battlefield

      16 June 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E1: Starlink, BEE and a new leader at Vodacom

      8 June 2025
    • Opinion

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025

      South Africa risks being left behind as stablecoins reshape global finance

      6 June 2025

      Beyond the box: why IT distribution depends on real partnerships

      2 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » World » Echo of Bill Gates as tech giants brace for antitrust showdown

    Echo of Bill Gates as tech giants brace for antitrust showdown

    By Agency Staff16 July 2019
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp
    Bill Gates testifying in 1998

    US technology giants are headed for their biggest antitrust showdown with congress in 20 years as lawmakers and regulators demand to know whether companies such as Google and Facebook use their dominance to squelch innovation.

    Executives from Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.com are set to appear on Tuesday before the house antitrust panel, whose Democratic chairman is leading an investigation into the market power of the biggest tech companies and their effect on competition.

    The hearing harks back to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ appearance before the senate in 1998 when Microsoft was the target of government scrutiny into its monopoly in computer operating systems. Two months later, the justice department filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft that reined in its practices and nearly led to the company’s breakup.

    This is really a deep dive by the committee to understand what’s going on in the tech sector…

    “This is really a deep dive by the committee to understand what’s going on in the tech sector, what needs to be done in terms of antitrust enforcement but also to understand better whether there is a need for change in the law,” said Gene Kimmelman, a senior adviser at the policy group Public Knowledge, who served in the justice department’s antitrust division under President Barack Obama.

    While the executives testifying on Tuesday don’t have the star power of Gates, their appearance marks the first time the largest technology companies will face questions from lawmakers amid a rising chorus of criticism that they are violating antitrust laws. That was the same accusation levelled at Microsoft two decades ago.

    Bearing down

    Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline, who leads the antitrust panel, is bearing down on technology companies as antitrust enforcers prepare their own scrutiny of the industry. The justice department and the Federal Trade Commission, which share antitrust jurisdiction, have taken the first steps toward investigating conduct by the biggest companies, with the justice department taking responsibility for Google and Apple, and the FTC overseeing Facebook and Amazon.

    Tuesday’s hearing will focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the key complaints from critics of the big tech companies is that they can use their power to thwart competition from smaller rivals. Academic research has shown a steady decline in business start-ups across the economy. One possible explanation is that rising market concentration across industries effectively shuts out entry by new businesses.

    While some barriers to competition are inherent in any business, the key question for the antitrust committee is whether and how dominant tech platforms can intentionally raise barriers to new entrants, said Michael Kades, the director of markets and competition policy at the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth.

    Apple is one of the company’s being probed by the US government

    A report by the University of Chicago’s Stigler Centre this year found that digital markets tend to be winner-take-all in which one firm comes to dominate. That creates an incentive for the companies to edge out new challengers that could threaten that dominance.

    Lack of competition can lead to reduced innovation, which harms consumers over time, according to the report. “The evidence thus far does suggest that current digital platforms face very little threat of entry and are negatively impacting investment in key digital areas,” it said.

    One of the authors of the Chicago report — Yale University economist Fiona Scott Morton — will testify on Tuesday. The company executives scheduled to appear are Adam Cohen, Google’s director of economic policy, Matt Perault, head of global policy development at Facebook, Amazon associate general counsel for competition Nate Sutton, and Kyle Andeer, vice president of corporate law at Apple.

    These platforms are helping small businesses the same way a large retailer operates as an anchor for a shopping centre or mall

    E-commerce trade association NetChoice, which includes Google and Facebook, will tell the committee a different story — that the reach of tech platforms gives small businesses the opportunity to target large audiences of potential customers through digital advertising. Not long ago, their only choice was expensive advertising in a local newspaper or television station, the group said.

    “These platforms are helping small businesses the same way a large retailer operates as an anchor for a shopping centre or mall,” Carl Szabo, vice president of NetChoice, will say, according to his prepared remarks. “The larger these platforms grow means the more customers small businesses can reach with better targeting and lower costs.”

    Sarah Miller, deputy director of Open Markets Institute, which advocates for aggressive antitrust enforcement, countered that tech platforms are harming entrepreneurs.

    “These companies were the darlings of most Democrats and now the dynamic has changed profoundly,” she said. “There is really a period of learning going on in congress, with staffers, with the broader public, around the varying ways that all of these tech companies, these tech monopolies, are destructive.”  — Reported by David McLaughlin and Ben Brody, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP



    Amazon Apple Bill Gates Facebook Google Microsoft top
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleFacebook’s big libra launch ‘fanned the flames’ for critics
    Next Article Eskom loses another top executive

    Related Posts

    Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

    24 June 2025

    Apple shifts its AI strategy

    23 June 2025

    Stolen phone? Samsung now buys you an hour to lock it down

    18 June 2025
    Company News

    TechCentral: South Africa’s premier platform for ICT leaders

    24 June 2025

    Section 18A deductions and BEE points – a strategic choice for business compliance in 2025

    24 June 2025

    Huawei Watch Fit 4 Series: beauty, brains and a battery that won’t quit

    24 June 2025
    Opinion

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    AI and the future of ICT distribution

    16 June 2025

    Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

    13 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.