US Justice Dept. Considers Taking a Bite out of Apple, Facebook

“Apple and Facebook are confronting a new wave of government scrutiny, as regulators have decided that the Justice Department will oversee antitrust complaints about Apple and the Federal Trade Commission will oversee complaints about the social network, according to two people with knowledge of the matter,” reports The New York Times.

The F.T.C. and Justice Department’s complementary oversight is not an indication of an official investigation, the article said. Rather, the “divvying of antitrust enforcement” illustrate the “growing discomfort by American regulators and some politicians with the enormous power that a handful of Silicon Valley’s businesses wield,” according to the article.

The primary impetus behind antitrust oversight is to foster healthy competition between businesses within a free market system and to protect consumers against unregulated market dominators.

Potential regulation—be it through the reigning in of future growth or by splitting up controlled entities that fall under the tech giants’ purview—will have a major impact on the way American industry at large functions. As the article acknowledged, “Regulators have struggled to keep pace with the growth of technology companies, which dominate large portions of the economy. Facebook is at the center of millions of people’s online social lives.

Amazon is the de facto force in online retailing. Google is the starting point for many people searching online. Apple has tremendous influence on app developers.”