In 2020-21, lawsuits have been filed raising antitrust complaints in state and federal district court by coalitions of state attorneys general, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and private firms against four large American technology companies, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. In this paper, I review the complaints and the criteria that will be used by judges and juries to assess whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google engaged in anticompetitive conduct. The courts will use the consumer welfare standard, rule of reason analysis, and other legal precedents in antitrust law and competition policy to prove harm. In each case, the courts will ask litigants to present evidence and develop theories of market definition, market concentration, market structure, and exclusionary agreements for different components of the digital economy.
Sarah Oh Lam is a Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. Oh Lam completed her PhD in Economics from George Mason University, and holds a JD from GMU and a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She was previously the Operations and Research Director for the Information Economy Project at George Mason School of Law. She has also presented research at the 39th Telecommunications Policy Research Conference and has co-authored work published in the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property among other research projects. Her research interests include law and economics, regulatory analysis, and technology policy.
