U.S. FTC meeting will scrutinize Big Tech's small deals
Reuters
Published Sep 08, 2021 01:24PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will hold its next open meeting on Sept. 15 to hear staff findings on deals that Big Tech firms like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) make which are sometimes too small to spark antitrust scrutiny, the agency said on Wednesday.
The agency began holding open meetings after Chair Lina Khan was sworn in June. Next week, the five commissioners will also consider whether to scrap guidelines put in place during the Trump administration regarding deals that combine a company with one of its suppliers.
The staff report will include Big Tech acquisitions from 2010 to 2019, some of which were not reported to antitrust enforcers because of their small size.
The Big Tech firms, which also include Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s Google and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), have been under antitrust scrutiny for more than two years. The FTC has sued Facebook while the Justice Department sued Google. Others remain under investigation.
The agency had sent demands for information to five big tech firms, including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), in February 2020, saying that it wanted to probe whether any of the smaller deals resulted in harm to competition.
The three Democrats and two Republicans on the commission will also vote on whether to issue a policy statement on privacy breaches by health apps and a process for accepting input on potential rules.
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.