Understanding Antitrust

The internet’s growth has been accompanied by the creation of a large number of new companies, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Uber, and many others. These global enterprises sometimes seem to have a dominant, perhaps unassailable, competitive position in their markets. This supposed dominance has caused some to argue for tougher antitrust enforcement.

In an explainer for RealClearPolicy, Joe Kennedy outlines the role of antitrust in technology policy issues such as data and privacy, and he explains how current antitrust principles remain capable of dealing with most threats to competition. Antitrust law should not protect incumbents from legitimate competition, nor should it break up companies simply because they are big. Instead, it should ensure that the rules are fair and that companies must compete in order to succeed.