Monopoly power is less dangerous today than in the past

A trial began this month over allegations that Google is a monopoly. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the company was using illegal tactics.

Google’s dominance in search is widely feared among competitors and organizations that depend on the giant for visibility and collaboration.

In October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The feds accused Google of violating the law by engaging in monopolistic practices in online search and related advertising markets. The federal authorities were joined by state attorneys general from Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas. This case was settled last month.

Since World War II, U.S. antitrust lawsuits have increasingly focused on corporations in the high-tech, communications and information industries. Previously, attacks mainly targeted the primary mining, processing and production industries.

Apple and Google now largely define the global smartphone operating system market. The former pioneered the user-friendly desktop computer. Co-founder Steve Jobs, forced out in a power struggle, returned to engineer a brilliant turnaround focusing on the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Such devices have become smaller even as the universe of readily available information has expanded rapidly.

As in the past, phones, computers and good old TVs are helping to democratize the availability of information. Two ongoing features are the complex interaction between technology and society and active government surveillance.

Information communications today are characterized by enormous, rapid change, but in the early days, telecommunications and computer companies enjoyed a much more organized commercial environment. Dominant corporations effectively controlled largely stable markets that, unlike today, change slowly.

Historically, concentrated corporate power has clearly endangered the public interest. John D. Rockefeller brilliantly built the Standard Oil Corporation into a powerful foundation of the American industrial economy, but the monopoly on oil and petroleum production was also dangerous. Standard Oil can literally dominate the US economy and shut down the government, including the military. The same dominance is not available in communication.

Antitrust prosecutors broke up Standard Oil in 1911. Investigative journalist Ida M. Tarbell played a key role in this with her book “The History of the Standard Oil Company.”

Computer and telecommunications companies also went to trial, although none had the power of Standard Oil. In 1969, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against IBM, but in 1982 it withdrew the lawsuit. Entrepreneurs led by Apple significantly weakened IBM’s position. The market has overtaken regulators.

The feds had greater success in prosecuting AT&T through an antitrust lawsuit initiated in 1974. In 1984, the corporation was dissolved. Ultimately, Southwestern Bell purchased the surviving long-distance carrier AT&T, re-adopted the name, and over time became a major player.

In 1894, after several years in Paris, Ida Tarbell returned to the United States. Instead of returning to her family in Titusville, Pennsylvania, she settled in New York, a bold and courageous move for a single woman at the time.

However, as Steve Weinberg notes in the book “Taking on the Trust”, devoted to her career, electricity has already radically changed life in a large metropolis. Electric trains and lights allowed for relatively safe and comfortable travel. Over time, technology has made life easier for the average person.

Consumers have benefited from increasing freedom of movement, according to today’s news. Researcher Tarbell made great use of the newly available telephones.

Technology, properly regulated, benefits us.