Companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook are facing an antitrust inquiry from the Justice Department. Here's what investors need to know.
The move is the strongest by Attorney General William Barr towards Big Tech, which faces increased scrutiny from both political parties because of the expanded market power the companies have and the tremendous amount of consumer data they control. President Trump, a regular critic of Amazon and CEO, has claimed that Facebook is biased against conservatives and recently agreed with an assessment by tech investor Peter Thiel that perhaps Google should be investigated for not working with the U.S.
The DOJ said in Tuesday's release that it's looking into competition, "stifled innovation" and the impact on consumers. "Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands," said Makan Delrahim, assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's antitrust division, inShares of Facebook, Alphabet, and Amazon all fell more than 1% immediately after the announcement. Apple's stock also dropped.
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