Antitrust Failure

Biden fails to address antitrust issues

By Darryl Weng

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Just yesterday, The Wall Street Journal(WSJ) reported the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by D.C against Amazon over pricing issues. The D.C government isn’t the only one who failed to strike Amazon successfully. Over the years, State and Federal governments have failed to break apart Facebook, Alphabet Inc., Amazon, and many more. Hours-long hearings were spent, and hundreds of cases were presented. The mammoths of America’s Tech Sector vs. the American Government seemed lopsided - one side completely winning, and the other completely losing.

When Biden came into office, many Americans believed a tougher stance on the tech sector would enter American politics. After all, progressives have always gone big on government regulation in their agenda. Today’s rise of political extremity has given the progressive agenda even more reason to flaunt regulations left and right on corporate America. Akin to his progressive predecessors, Biden brought government regulations across the board, from regulating energy producers to COVID-19 regulations on health concerns. However, Biden has spent little effort in regulating the tech sector, similar to Trump and Obama.

The major players in the tech sector have been eliminating competition. In 2020, Amazon had several publicized incidents where it stole the technology of startups it heavily invested in. By investing in startups, Amazon’s venture-capital fund was able to access private information of those startups, from understanding financial situations to finding the nitty-gritty of the latest technological insights. The whole situation itself is legal and non-surprising, but Amazon abused the relationship. In a WSJ article, Journalists Dana Mattoili and Cara Lombardo detailed several incidents where Amazon had taken startup technology and branded such innovation as its own. One particular incident Mattioli and Lombardo documented was when a startup known as DefinedCrowd was utilizing AI technology to create a product that appeared strikingly similar to an Amazon product made four years later. DefinedCrowd was exactly the type of startup where Amazon abused the relationship - an Amazon-invested startup. Many of the new patents and technology under Amazon appear to be the result of Amazon’s abuse on the technology industry’s blooming corporations. The innovations and growth of Amazon seem almost built upon other companies that had potential to bring heavy competition.

The regulation of the likes of Amazon seemed likely when Biden became president. But nothing has been done. Even SEC’s Gary Gensler chose not to chase Amazon's exploitation of the patent system that could open heavy support for antitrust cases led by the U.S government. Despite Trump’s similar rhetoric on antitrust issues, Trump’s presidency at least saw success in the rise of small businesses. If Biden only continues to simply dote on unions and heavy corporate taxes, America’s corporate sector won’t see any improvement.

Sadly, this issue is currently beyond the reach of many Americans. The politicization of corporate America has led to the flourishing of monopoly-like companies we see today. The progressive agenda of regulations has not changed, but the spheres of influence have. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, a newspaper that favors liberal and progressive ideals. Facebook and Twitter have made their own regulations on users, mostly with political aim that favors progressives. Disney’s former CEO was vocal in supporting social rights that aligned with progressive ideology. Biden’s current presidency is only contributing to the harm done to American growth in technology and competition, suppressing the freedom and mobilization of America.