DEAR EDITOR: On June 11, a group of 43 state attorneys general, including Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, signed a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging the agency to break up tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, on antitrust grounds because their overwhelming grip on their markets seriously harms consumers.
The AG’s rightly point out that price is not the only factor that determines whether there is an antitrust violation; tech monopolies also stifle innovation and diminish product quality. Most of all, these tech monopolies collect our personal data and then brazenly profit from the use of it, usually without our consent. Think about how Amazon suggests products you might like based on your shopping history, and how Google shows ads based on your search queries.
Everyone agrees Big Tech needs to be broken up, but we can’t rely on the FTC to get this right. The tech industry moves quickly, and we can’t afford to put off action against these companies any longer. We need our state attorneys general to act.
Thankfully, Colorado’s own Attorney General, Phil Weiser, is one of the country’s leading experts on antitrust law—he literally wrote the textbook on the subject.
He has only been in office since January, but he brings a vast wealth of expertise in antitrust law. Weiser was U.S. Deputy Attorney General responsible for antitrust enforcement in the Obama administration.
With his unmatched background in antitrust enforcement, Attorney General Weiser is uniquely qualified to lead on breaking up Big Tech. As their letter to the FTC demonstrates, state attorneys general know that they need to take on Big Tech companies. Hopefully our Attorney General Phil Weiser can lead that effort. If he does, I know the people of Colorado will benefit.
— Mike Cerbo, via letters@SentinelColorado.com