From winning a significant antitrust case against Google to adding additional export controls against China, the Biden administration took significant steps toward technology regulation in the U.S.
William Kovacic, law and competition professor at George Washington University, said the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) focus on mergers and acquisitions might be one of the hallmarks of Biden's regulatory era. Google was also found guilty of being a monopolist and data brokers fell under intense scrutiny during Biden's term.
The incoming Trump administration will likely depart from some of Biden's initiatives, including heightened merger scrutiny, Kovacic said. Still, he noted that other initiatives, including the online search and digital advertising technologies antitrust cases against Google, will continue under Trump.
"A number of things that have been a centerpiece of the Biden administration have some antecedence during the Trump era," Kovacic said.
A number of things that have been a centerpiece of the Biden administration have some antecedence during the Trump era.
William KovacicLaw and competition professor, George Washington University
Experts identified the following four key areas of technology regulation under the Biden administration in 2024:
1. Winning antitrust, merger cases
The DOJ won the online search antitrust case against Google in 2024, labeling Google a monopolist. The case has entered the remedy stage, with the DOJ proposing potential options such as breaking up the company.
The FTC also won merger cases in 2024. Although the FTC lost its case against Meta and Within in 2023, Kovacic said the FTC and DOJ became more selective about M&A activity they pursued, which led to successes in merger cases such as Tapestry and Capri, Kroger and Albertsons, and JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.
Given Trump's recent appointments to lead the DOJ and FTC, Kovacic said he expects existing cases against Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple to continue under the incoming administration.
Trump has announced plans to nominate Gail Slater to serve as assistant attorney general of the DOJ's antitrust division. He also said he intends to nominate Andrew Ferguson to serve as FTC chair and Mark Meador to serve as an FTC commissioner.
Slater's appointment in particular indicates Trump won't ease up antitrust law enforcement, said Joseph Coniglio, director of antitrust and innovation at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Slater, a former FTC staff attorney and former general counsel for Roku Inc., most recently served as a staffer to Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, who has publicly supported breaking up Google. The previous Trump administration initially brought the online search antitrust case against Google.
"The appointment of Gail Slater makes clear there's going to be continued scrutiny of the technology industries from the Trump antitrust division," Coniglio said.
He added that he expects tension within the Trump administration when it comes to balancing antitrust and going after big tech, while also promoting U.S. competition with China.
2. Targeting data brokers' practices
The federal government is starting to understand the significant affect behind data brokers' data collection practices, said Frank Pasquale, a law professor at Cornell University. The FTC has cracked down on several data brokers over the last four years for collecting and selling sensitive consumer data.
Pasquale said the Biden administration has grasped the national security risk that widespread data collection poses, something he believes the Trump administration will also continue to recognize.
Pasquale also applauded the FTC's efforts on commercial surveillance rulemaking, which began in 2022. Earlier this year, the FTC sought to shed light on surveillance pricing by ordering eight companies, including Accenture and JPMorgan Chase, to provide information on how they use consumer data such as browsing and credit history to individualize prices.
Data collection drew lawmakers' eyes as well. Congress passed a law banning social media platform TikTok from operating in the U.S. due to concerns about the company's owner, ByteDance, collecting data for the Chinese Communist Party. The Supreme Court has taken up the case, as the app is set to be removed from Apple and Google's app stores in the U.S. starting Jan. 19, 2025.
"You put those two together, and you do see an agency that has a grip on the depth of the problem," Pasquale said.
Still, Pasquale said he saw little progress toward regulating generative AI models, despite the FTC launching an inquiry into GenAI partnerships in January. He said his hope for the incoming Trump administration is that the agencies will attempt to understand and put guardrails around data used to train tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.
However, he said he believes generative AI will continue to be "a difficult target for regulators."
"To me, the big disappointment is I see very little progress in making even elementary or small steps toward breaching that wall of secrecy around AI," he said.
Kovacic noted that Ferguson, the incoming FTC chair, has expressed concern about excessive intervention regarding AI development and implementation. Under the Biden administration, the DOJ and FTC promoted a program of intervening in companies' AI use and claims, he said. For example, the FTC targeted Rytr LLC and banned its AI-assisted user review service. Ferguson, who dissented the FTC's decision in the Rytr case, might depart from such a strict approach, Kovacic said.
4. Expanding export controls on advanced technologies
The Biden administration's continued focus on a "small yard, high fence" approach with China, or keeping a small group of important technologies protected to maintain the U.S. technological lead, is significant, Pasquale said.
"On the commerce side, it's interesting to think about how the tech export controls with an eye to China were a big focus," Pasquale said.
Biden's implementation of export controls on advanced semiconductor and artificial intelligence technologies followed Trump's lead from his previous administration. However, Pasquale said he hopes the Trump administration will reassess the U.S. relationship with China. He added that he believes the U.S. could learn from some Chinese technological advances in areas such as electric vehicle manufacturing and drones.
"There is so much to learn from the successes of the Chinese economy over the past 20 years," he said.
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.
