More Antitrust Pain For Amazon, Microsoft And Google: UK Regulator Promises Action

  • U.K. digital regulator Ofcom proposed investigating digital markets, including cloud computing, internet messaging, and smart devices. 
  • Ofcom will first probe whether the so-called hyperscale cloud providers, Amazon.com Inc's AMZN Amazon Web ServicesMicrosoft Corp's MSFT AzureAlphabet Inc' GOOG GOOGL Google Cloud, hampered innovation and growth.
  • Collectively, these three firms generate 81% of revenues in the U.K. public cloud infrastructure services market worth £15 billion.
  • Also Read: More Regulatory Watching For Amazon, $1.7B Proposed Purchase Of iRobot Attracts Atention
  • The calling and messaging study will examine Meta Platforms Inc's META WhatsAppApple Inc's AAPL FaceTime, and Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM, and issues like whether they should be able to interact with each other more. 
  • The smart devices investigation will inspect connected televisions and speakers and their bargaining power with those who produce content like entertainment and news.
  • The Competition and Markets Authority is amid several active probes into Big Tech companies. 
  • Meanwhile, the European Commission penalized Google billions of dollars over alleged antitrust offenses and investigated Apple and Amazon in separate cases.
  • U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar blamed an "incredible onslaught of money" hindering a landmark antitrust bill from checking the power of the U.S. Big Tech companies.
  • Price Action: AMZN shares traded lower by 0.01% at $100 premarket on the last check Thursday.
  • Photo by Okan Caliskan from Pixabay
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