Over time, some tech companies have grown to a massive size, posing antitrust concerns. Now, some of the country’s retail giants are asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to open up an antitrust investigation into Amazon and Google. In a letter dated June 30 , the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) — including companies like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart — wrote to the FTC. Within the letter, the companies focused on one unique aspect: the role that information and data plays. “Our view is that modern antitrust enforcement needs to be driven by a greater recognition that control over information can drive anticompetitive effect just as much as market power and price control,” the RILA wrote. The United States has struggled with managing its big tech companies for some time. Part of the struggle is that these companies have a global reach that people are still trying to understand. However, that’s not an excuse for regulatory practices to not exist —especially at home....

Recently, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that comes as a serious blow to Apple. The case in question, Apple Inc. v. Pepper , revolves around whether Apple’s App Store is a monopoly — and if iPhone users have the right to sue. On Monday, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 that Apple app buyers could sue the company for allegedly driving up prices. The complaint says that because Apple charges a 30 percent commission to app developers, that fee is then passed onto consumers. This is a big deal because Apple tried to say users can buy apps on other platforms so their store isn’t a monopoly, as reported by The Verge . In addition, Apple claimed iOS users are “indirect purchasers.” In other words, they’re buying from the app developer and not from Apple. As a result, Apple itself cannot be sued. That logic rested on the Illinois Brick doctrine, which comes from an earlier Supreme Court case, Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois. As summarized by Wired , the state of Illinois sued...

In March, Spotify shook the table when the company accused Apple of stifling competition through its “Apple tax.” Notoriously, Apple takes a 30 percent “tax” cut from any subscriptions made in its App Store. Now, Apple may be facing some repercussions. According to the Financial Times , three unnamed sources confirmed that the European Union has decided to launch an antitrust investigation into Apple. If the EU does launch an investigation, the Financial Times reported that they can make Apple change business policies deemed unlawful and issue fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s global turnover. “If we pay this tax, it would force us to artificially inflate the price of our Premium membership well above the price of Apple Music,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a March blog post . “And to keep our price competitive for our customers, that isn’t something we can do.” In addition to Apple’s Tax, Spotify claimed that Apple restricts music-streaming services in competition with its...

The European Union seems to have lost all patience for playing games with big tech companies. Today, the European Union announced that it fined Google €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion). It’s the company’s third antitrust violation in the country since 2017. The fine came because Google was blocking rival online search advertisers. In a statement, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, “Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites.” Through Google’s AdSense for Search, the company provided ads for websites, like those of newspapers, with a search function that also comes up with results and ads. Google would stop publishers from including any search ads from its competitors on their page results. This meant the publishers were relying on Google in order to profit from ads. In addition, a 2009 clause also made publishers seek Google’s...