FTC to review past Big Tech deals

he Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Tuesday announced that it is reviewing a decade’s worth of acquisitions by the country’s largest technology firms, allowing the agency to home in on whether companies like Facebook and Google harmed competition as they gobbled up hundreds of smaller rivals.

The agency is requesting a slew of documents from Facebook, Google, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon as it works to learn more about the “terms, scope, structure, and purpose” of the many acquisitions the companies have made since 2010. The review process will allow the FTC to probe the litany of smaller acquisitions that enabled the Big Tech firms to become global powerhouses over the past decade.

“Digital technology companies are a big part of the economy and our daily lives,” FTC Chairman Joe Simons said in a statement. “This initiative will enable the Commission to take a closer look at acquisitions in this important sector, and also to evaluate whether the federal agencies are getting adequate notice of transactions that might harm competition.”

“This will help us continue to keep tech markets open and competitive, for the benefit of consumers,” he said.

Tech-focused consumer advocates for years have pressed the FTC to issue these document requests, called 6(b) orders, in an effort to force the companies to turn over information about how they amassed enormous power and influence, sometimes at the disadvantage of smaller players. The orders are compulsory and function like subpoenas.