Global regulators are increasing their focus on the large technology firms, with several big antitrust cases emerging this week. The European Union’s antitrust regulator has opened a new case against Google, this time to investigate the search and advertising giant’s alleged anti-competitive behavior in digital advertising.

This move is in line with the recent activities of EU regulators to reign in the market dominance of the big technology companies and promote balance in the digital market.

The Federal Trade Commission in the United States has filed an amended complaint against Facebook accusing the social media giant of having used anticompetitive means to preserve its dominance in the personal social networking market.

The new complaint filed by the FTC after a federal judge threw out the FTC’s first complaint in June includes new evidence that shows how Facebook has acquired or eliminated potential rivals in order to maintain its market power.

At the same time, the Chinese authorities have not stopped their pressure on the country’s technology companies with new rules that prohibit unfair competition and the abuse of user data. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has recently released a set of draft rules that would ban companies from using data, algorithms or other technical means to direct user behaviour or disrupt the functioning of competitors’ platforms.

This is viewed as a continuation of a process that Beijing has been undertaking to reduce the influence of its technology firms and tackle issues to do with data protection and monopoly.

The pressure on the tech giants to enforce higher antitrust standards has resulted in the enhanced collaboration between the antitrust regulators across the world. The heads of competition agencies of G7 countries have recently met to discuss the strategies that can be used in handling issues concerning the digital market. They underscored the importance of cooperation in addressing challenges like data growth, network effects, and the possibility of digital platforms to be monopolies.

These investigations and regulatory efforts are ongoing and tech companies may be subject to large fines, forced divestitures, and new operating restrictions as a result of these actions. Experts in the industry have opined that such heightened focus may result in a complete transformation of the digital ecosystem, which may create new entry points for new entrants and encourage innovation in the tech industry.

However, the critics believe that excessive regulation may slow down the innovation process and also be detrimental to the consumers’ interest.
The results of these antitrust cases and regulatory actions are likely to have a significant impact on the development of the digital economy in the future, and may establish new benchmarks for the behaviour of large technology companies and their competition on the international market.