Anonymous individuals at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission have recently taken it upon themselves to leak to the media that their respective agencies will soon open investigations of the largest U.S. tech companies. Policing markets with the antitrust laws is key to ensuring that competition benefits consumers.
No industry should be free from antitrust scrutiny, including big tech. But the splitting of this tech antitrust review across two federal agencies, despite the many similar competition issues that will be investigated, illustrates the absurdity of having two federal agencies handling civil antitrust enforcement. It also shows why these investigations are likely to be less effective and coherent than they should be.
