![]() ![]() The main result has been fines-European regulators fined Google $9 billion in the past three years-but fines haven’t changed anything. German regulators recently ruled that Facebook can’t automatically track its users on other websites or merge users’ WhatsApp and Instagram data with their Facebook data, but must give them a choice instead. The European Union has brought three cases against Google, related to its ads network, shopping search results, and the company’s requirement that Android phones be loaded with other Google apps. Haven’t regulators been trying to address this? (This can be tricky, though, because these components are harder to measure than price.) And they won’t just evaluate whether two companies compete, but whether one buying the other will make it stronger overall. ![]() Now, some scholars think it’s increasingly important to ask about the “non-price components of competition,” like privacy. ![]() “And it’s access to that data, and how that data can help the company obtain or maintain its dominance.” “They fail to really consider what's driving data-driven mergers,” says Maurice Stucke, an antitrust expert at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and coauthor of Big Data and Competition Policy. The companies don’t directly compete, so an acquisition shouldn’t be a problem. Under this view, Google is a search engine while YouTube is a video platform. Because big tech companies offer many services for free, the consumer welfare standard says that it’s okay for them to keep growing. This core principle of antitrust law says that the most important consideration is that prices don’t go up. Many experts blame the consumer welfare standard for letting this happen. They get a lot of this data by buying up smaller companies. If everyone else already uses Facebook, joining a new network seems pointless. Companies like Google and Amazon collect a lot of data, use that data across services to improve tools and keep growing, and punish competitors. ![]()
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