DOJ opens tech antitrust probe

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced it is launching an investigation into whether the country’s largest tech companies have stifled competition or harmed consumers, marking the department’s widest-ranging inquiry into potential tech antitrust violations yet.

The DOJ’s antitrust division is leading the probe, surveying “whether and how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers,” the DOJ said in a statement.

Facebook, Google and Amazon – some of the largest and most powerful tech companies in the world – could all be implicated in the DOJ’s probe.

The department will “consider the widespread concerns that consumers, businesses, and entrepreneurs have expressed about search, social media, and some retail services online,” according to the statement.