With Republican President Donald Trump taking office this year, the biggest technology leader in Silicon Valley – all fighting the federal anti-unit lawsuits launched in Trump’s previous period, and the Democrat Biden administration has been unprecedented supply of peace.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple CEO Tim Cook were sitting behind Trump during their inauguration stage in January. Google and Meta cooked personally and each donated $1 million to the inauguration committee. Google and Meta have withdrawn from the president’s criticism of diversity programs and social media content moderation.
But so far, the Trump administration is still using antitrust laws to pursue anti-monopoly action against the three Washington-based companies and Amazon.
“I have been encouraged to not fall into the predictable patterns of Republican administrations before the administration took a handoff approach,” said Professor Mark Remley of Stanford Law School, who teaches antitrust laws.
“We don’t know yet whether Trump, particularly some of the high-tech billionaires sucked into Zuckerberg and Bezos, will overturn his antitrust head and persuade them to drop their lawsuits, but Lemley said, “There are many indications that the Trump administration may continue to carry out offensive antitrust enforcement.”
Signaling that legal measures targeting Silicon Valley could continue to move forward in the second Trump administration, the US Department of Justice repeated a request made under former President Joe Biden in November, and Google sold its highly popular and valuable Chrome Internet browser.
“For these companies, these cases are extremely important,” said Sam Weinstein, a former anti-trust lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice and is now a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York. “Google and Meta are facing the possibility of breaking up.”
The changes the government is sought in Apple’s lawsuits are “not existential threats.” Amazon’s business model and structure are also at risk, he added.
In 2020, the Department of Justice sued Google over Internet Search Apps and related advertising, alleging its transactions with companies, including device manufacturers such as Apple and wireless carriers such as AT&T.
In a 2023 blog post, Google called the “deeply flawed” lawsuit, saying, “People don’t need to use Google. In August, Washington, DC, federal court judge Amit Metah ruled, “Google is the monopoly.” Mehta will weigh the Department of Justice’s requests to enforce the sale of Chrome. The evidence hearing begins on April 21st.
In 2023, the Justice Department once again sued Google, claiming that the Mountain View Digital-Advertising giant is dominating software that places ads on web pages. In a 2023 court filing, Google rejected such an exclusive, saying in a blog post in September it “exceeds the legal requirements for creating tools that others can use.”
The Justice Department lawsuit against Apple claimed that the Cupertino iPhone Titan “conserves its monopoly on smartphones illegally.” The lawsuit has asked the court to limit control over Apple’s app distribution and limit control over bar agreements with third parties that support alleged monopolies.
Apple’s Apple argued that the lawsuit was based on false premises, “not to build a great product that consumers trust and love, but rather by blocking competing threats for deliberate deterioration of Apple’s iPhone.”
The US Federal Trade Commission’s 2020 lawsuit against Meta’s Facebook alleges that the Menlo Park social media giant is holding a monopoly protected by buying a budding rival Instagram in 2012 and drawing a Whatsapp message two years later. In Washington, D.C., a federal court is scheduled to go to trial on April 14th, with Meta CEO Zuckerberg set to testify.
Filed in court in 2021, the FTC requested meta to be ordered to sell or “restructure” Instagram and WhatsApp. This week’s Meta believes the news organization “evidence at trial shows that the acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp is suitable for competition and consumers,” indicating that FTC’s actions “can punish business for innovation.”
Amazon said it was accused by the FTC in a 2023 lawsuit of “exclusive conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from appearing,” and last year said its rival discounts, competitive price offer recommendations, and fast, reliable shipping recommendations will encourage “general” and competition.
As the case progresses, many eyes are turning to Trump’s candidates to lead Gale Slater, the Department of Justice’s anti-trust division. She is a former FTC lawyer and former principal of a major now-repeated technology lobby group, and was confirmed to lead the department on March 11 by the US Senator. In a written response to Senate questions before her confirmation, Slater said she would prioritize enforcing exclusive violations of Big Technology.
The FTC refused this week to say whether it was committed to antitrust laws, and the Department of Justice did not answer the question.
If federal agencies repeal antitrust laws against technology companies, cases of Apple’s co-at-commissioner, Google and Amazon can keep the lawsuit alive. But Stanford’s Lemley said the courts are unlikely to force major structural changes on businesses, and some Republican-led states are unlikely to drop out.
How important the case is to the Trump administration is an open question, Weinstein said.
“The list of things in the minds of the administration is very long,” Weinstein said, “And the antitrust may be very far from the bottom.”
Original issue: March 17, 2025, 1:17pm
