Big tech companies facing antitrust lawsuits in the U.S. such as Google, Amazon and Meta might be able to breathe a little easier. Under an incoming Trump administration, large-scale remedies such as company breakups will likely be taken off the table.
President-elect Donald Trump's first administration brought the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google in 2020. Washington, D.C., District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case earlier this year, determining that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over online search. The case is now in the remedy phase as the DOJ seeks recourse against Google's actions. While it's difficult to predict what direction the DOJ might take under the new administration, Trump seemed to indicate in an October interview that a Google breakup might be too extreme.
The person Trump names to lead the DOJ's antitrust division will significantly affect the DOJ's remedy approach, said Erik Hovenkamp, an antitrust law professor at Cornell Law School. Trump has already nominated Matt Gaetz to serve as U.S. attorney general and head of the DOJ. Gaetz is a former Florida representative and a strong Trump proponent who has been vocal about exposing "corruption in the FBI, the Justice Department," according to his campaign website. Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, a big tech critic, currently oversees the DOJ's antitrust division.
"If we assume that Trump, whoever he appoints to lead the DOJ antitrust division, inherits the same policies, that could affect what remedy the DOJ asks for," Hovenkamp said. "They might ask for some things but not a breakup."
Despite remedy shift, Trump will continue antitrust enforcement
The DOJ filed a proposed Google remedy framework in October, which Hovenkamp described as a broad, general document keeping most potential remedies on the table, including a breakup. He said it would be easy to alter the DOJ's final direction.
"You wouldn't have to shift much to the right in terms of antitrust policy for the DOJ to pull that back a little bit and take a little of a more conservative approach where they ask mainly for an injunction," he said.
I would expect that these cases are going to be revisited.
Daniel CastroVice president, ITIF
Aside from the Google case, the Federal Trade Commission has ongoing antitrust cases against Amazon and Meta. Washington, D.C., Chief District Court Judge James Boasberg recently ruled that the FTC's case against Meta can proceed to trial.
As with the DOJ leadership, Trump is also expected to replace FTC Chair Lina Khan, a critic of big tech companies and Amazon, in particular. Hovenkamp said it's difficult to predict whether the FTC, without Khan's leadership, might drop the Amazon and Meta cases. He said while some portions of the Amazon case are "fairly conventional," other parts are more progressive.
"One possibility is they could keep the case going but narrow the focus a little bit to some of the more orthodox parts of that complaint," he said.
Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said he expects Trump's appointees to be more traditionally focused, which could affect some of the enforcement agencies' existing cases.
"I would expect that these cases are going to be revisited," Castro said. "Some might be shelved, and some might be maintained."
Still, Hovenkamp said he doesn't think that will translate to low antitrust enforcement under Trump.
Hovenkamp pointed to Makan Delrahim, Trump's former assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division during his first administration. Hovenkamp said Delrahim, who supported Kanter's appointment as the DOJ's assistant attorney general in 2021, was not "a low enforcement guy." Instead, he adopted a strong focus on vertical mergers, challenging AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner.
"That's kind of what I expect if I had to guess," Hovenkamp said of antitrust under the new Trump administration. "It would be a little bit more moderate, focused more on economics, but still willing to bring big cases and not shying away from pushing the envelope."
Makenzie Holland is a senior news writer covering big tech and federal regulation. Prior to joining TechTarget Editorial, she was a general assignment reporter for the Wilmington StarNews and a crime and education reporter at the Wabash Plain Dealer.
