US parliamentarians called on Tuesday, October 6 for the separation of the activities of the four big "tech" (Gafa), Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, accused of
"monopoly"
and abuse of a dominant position in their respective sector.
This report was produced by these elected officials after more than fifteen months of investigation and hearings with the managers of the four companies, in parallel with the antitrust investigations carried out by the federal government and the States.
To read also: Nicolas Baverez: "Gafam, towards the end of the monopoly"
The 449-page document concludes that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google
"have their own private quasi-regulations that apply only to themselves
.
"
“To put it simply, these giants that were once start-ups, challenging the status quo, have become the kind of monopolies we haven't seen since the days of oil barons and road tycoons. iron, ”
the report says.
Tech companies have significant power over "large swathes of our economy" and "have grown and exploited it in financial markets in a non-competitive manner," say Judicial Committee Chairmen Jerrold Nadler, and that of the Antitrust Subcommittee David Cicillin, in a press release.
Democrat elected representatives in the House of Representatives therefore advocate
"structural separations to prevent these platforms from operating in sectors of activity that depend on or interact with it"
.
The report also recommends that platforms allow “
interoperability”
with their competitor's equipment and the establishment of a
“standard”
to prohibit acquisitions that harm competition.
To read also: Barry Lynn: "The world will not collapse when we have dismantled the Gafa"
These findings echo a mounting discontent against these companies, whose fortunes have grown in recent years as they extended their dominance, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report produced by the House of Representatives Judicial Committee team, however, was not validated by Republican members, and the recommended measures should therefore not even be considered in the Republican-controlled Senate.
This highlights the differences between the elected officials of the two parties, who often jointly criticize the tech giants, but for different reasons.