- And the European Union has hit Google
with a record fine, equal to five billion dollars.
The EU says Google violated anti-trust laws.
- The incredible success of this industry
in the United States,
owes a lot
to the light hand of government
in the technology area.
- You don't think you have a monopoly?
- It certainly doesn't feel like that to me.
- Ok.
(Laughter)
- The evidence showed overwhelmingly, abundantly
that Microsoft abused that monopoly power.
- In 1998 the United States Department of Justice
sued the Microsoft corporation
for violating anti-trust laws,
and illegally obstructing competition
in the software industry.
- The concern was that Microsoft
took its monopoly in the operating system
and leveraged that to take over the browser market.
- And they did everything humanly possible
legal or illegal, to stop Netscape's browser
from getting traction, because Netscape's browser
had become a partial substitute
to the operating system and eventually
threatened Microsoft's monopoly.
- The deposition of Microsoft
founder and chairman, Bill Gates,
was described as embarrassing and evasive.
- I don't recall the plan.
I don't recall specifically.
I don't recall exactly, but-
No, I don't recall that being discussed.
No, I don't recall.
I don't recall.
I honestly don't recall.
I don't recall the number.
But, I don't recall.
I don't recall knowing in advance.
- Once the trial started,
there was a public airing of exactly
what they did, under oath.
- After two years, Microsoft was found guilty
of illegally monopolizing and using its monopoly
to impede competition.
- Following yesterday's anti-trust ruling
against Microsoft by a federal judge,
senior company officials held a news conference
to talk about the decision.
- But we did everything
we could to settle this case, and we'll continue to look
for new opportunities to resolve it.
We believe we have a strong case on appeal.
- The court ordered
that the Microsoft corporation break into two parts.
One that produced operating systems,
and one that produced software.
- What happened then is quite interesting.
The Republicans came to power,
and they negotiated a quick settlement with Microsoft.
And people like me criticized the settlement as being
not sufficient.
- So the Microsoft case
is our last major monopolization case
against a tech platform, and that was almost 20 years ago.
- Web giant Google will pay $1.6 billion
to gobble up YouTube.
- Instagram was snapped up
by Facebook for a billion dollars.
- Facebook has bought the mobile messaging
service WhatsApp for nineteen billion dollars.
- Today, Amazon bought Whole Foods for a price
that should qualify for free shipping, 13.7 billion dollars.
- The big picture concern
for all of the tech platforms is
that they're gatekeepers that are controlling commerce,
and then they get to kind of pick the winners and losers
of their respective areas.
If Google decides it wants to enter into a type
of search like reviews or travel, video, maps,
it can easily just prioritize its own stuff
and take over that market.
Third party sellers have told me that once they see
that Amazon is selling the same good that they're selling,
they liquidate their inventory.
They know it's impossible to compete
against Amazon on Amazon's own platform.
- What I wanna see is anti-trust enforcement
because it protects markets,
because it protects small competitors,
because it protects consumers over the long run.
- Despite the Microsoft ruling,
little to no anti-trust enforcement
has been applied to the tech industry.
- So there's two main problems which is bad case all
that makes it hard for the enforcers to win these cases,
but also underenforcement.
And then we have a lot of conservative judges,
they really just have the view
that we should leave corporations alone.
The monopoly power translates to political power.
- My relationship with Silicon Valley
and the tech community has historically been really good.
- Mhm.
- Many of these folks are my friends.
- And the more we have monopolies,
the less we're having the will of the people
and more we're having the will of these moneyed interests.
- When people ask me
what the most important anti-trust decision
of the last quarter century has been, I say Citizens United.
- This Supreme Court case
allows unlimited political spending
by corporations as a First Amendment right.
- We are well on our way to seeing our great country
move toward an oligarchic form of government
where virtually all economic and political power
rests with a handful of very wealthy families.
Citizens United is a part of that process,
and that is a trend we must reverse.
- We're at that point now where we've gotten
to the new Gilded Age.
Huge income inequality which just
makes complete sense, right?
If you have a few corporations
that are extracting the wealth
of all the other sectors of the economy,
all the other players in the economy,
of course you're gonna get inequality, right?
- But once you stop enforcing the anti-trust laws
and once you start letting companies acquire
their competitors so that competition and the pressure
of market competition goes away,
you have what we have now: unfettered corporate power
and people, I think, have concluded
both Republicans and Democrats have concluded
that corporate power isn't working for the American people.
(chiming)