Commentators all over the spectrum have recognized antitrust is increasingly becoming a game of political football.
The notion that antitrust enforcement is motivated by politics has hung over the Trump administration since the Department of Justice’s failed attempt to block AT&T’s acquisition of CNN’s owner, Time Warner and some antitrust experts might point out that the Obama administration also influenced the DOJ’s decisions to sue or settle cases.
While politics has always played a role in setting the antitrust agenda, typically antitrust investigations and enforcement decisions are based on the facts. Indeed, there is no credible evidence that the big tech firms have engaged in unlawful monopolization or that they have stifled innovation. In fact, Iowa’s Attorney General Tom Miller, who is well known for his role of leading 20 states in the DOJ’s antitrust suit against Microsoft, said this past July that “[w]e are struggling with the law and the theory,” to bring a case against the big tech firms.