Ownership

On Dec. 13, 2017, The Walt Disney Company entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets and businesses from Twenty-First Century Fox, including Fox’s 22 regional sports networks (RSNs).  After an investigation, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division filed a civil antitrust lawsuit on June 27, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to block the proposed transaction.  At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, would resolve the Department’s competitive concerns.

European Union officials have drawn up an aggressive 173-page plan to counter both President Donald Trump’s trade moves and American tech giants including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook. European Commission officials are pushing their president-elect, Ursula von der Leyen, to set up a European Future Fund that would invest more than $100 billion in equity stakes in high-potential European companies. The goal: get Europe competing head-on with the American and Chinese tech giants it has lagged behind for decades.

A Verizon Boingo deal aims to bring Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband coverage indoors, thereby extending the range of the service, which operates in the millimeter wave spectrum band. In addition, Verizon said it will launch 5G Ultra Wideband service in Phoenix (AZ) Aug 23. Phoenix will be the tenth market in which Verizon has launched mobile 5G service. As with previous Verizon mobile 5G launches, coverage areas will be limited. 

While it’s wrong to characterize Google as part of the Democratic Party machine, there’s plenty of room to question how it’s affecting our democracy and society.

The Department of Justice is forging ahead with its review of online platforms for potential antitrust violations, coordinating with state attorneys general while signaling it could send demands for documents to Silicon Valley companies and their critics, said DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim. Assistant Attorney General Delrahim also waded into a simmering Washington debate over what legal protections should be afforded to Facebook, Google and Twitter for the user-generated content that appears on their platforms, raising the possibility that Congress could re-examine the law.

To address the loss of a mobile communications competitor that will result from the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a solution that seeks to enable DISH Network to emerge as a fourth national facilities-based wireless carrier. From an engineering perspective, however, DOJ’s approach to enabling DISH’s deployment is not guaranteed to prove adequate to maintain competition comparable to that currently offered over Sprint’s network.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons said that Facebook’s effort to integrate Instagram and WhatsApp more closely could stymie any attempt to break up the social media giant. Chairman Simons said all options were on the table as the FTC investigates Facebook for potential antitrust violations, including major divestitures, but added that the plan by Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive, to knit together Facebook’s three major brands could complicate any case.

It’s likely that a robust antitrust enforcement regime, in tandem with a suite of economic policies could create a market more amenable to sustaining journalism. But in the absence of that, and the uncertainty as to whether the market is fundamentally able to provide the necessary journalistic coverage to inform and serve a functioning democracy and civic life, it’s worth considering what no Democrat has dared advocate for 50-some years: a renewed and robust public investment in media. Yet the fate of (public) media has gotten surprisingly little attention in the 2020 cycle.

Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and seven other Democratic Sens called on the Federal Communications Commission to issue a public notice and seek public comment on the proposed merger between T-Mobile and Sprint in light of the Proposed Final Judgment and a Stipulation and Order (Consent Decree) recently filed by the Department of Justice. “We remain concerned about the lack of transparency in the FCC’s merger review process and the lack of certainty on whether this merger will protect competition and consumers," the Senators wrote.

The backlash against giant tech companies is stressing the public institutions tasked with examining their power, as participants, observers and critics question whether regulators have the skill, will and authority to check corporate forces. The machinery of antitrust regulation will process the broader conversation about tech's role in society through the mill of American politics and law — and some wonder whether it's up to the task.