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Joe Biden’s administration is going after big companies with antitrust lawsuits.
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It is an aggressive approach that sets Biden apart from his predecessors.
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High-profile cases include Live Nation, Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and others.
President Joe Biden is really leaning into his pro-labor image.
The Biden administration has launched investigations and antitrust lawsuits against several mega-companies, many in the tech sector, which it accuses of behaving like monopolies — and it sets him apart from his predecessors.
“This is definitely a different agenda than previous presidents,” Rebecca Allensworth, an antitrust expert at Vanderbilt University, told Business Insider. “I think Biden is saying… consolidation and the power that big corporations have gotten over the last 20, 30 years is not good for the American consumer or for Americans in general. I think it’s very much a deliberate attempt to take away some of the market power that these big companies have built up.”
Major tech leaders, even those typically aligned with Democrats, aren’t happy about it. Some have urged Vice President Kamala Harris to make changes at the Federal Trade Commission if she is elected president, namely by replacing FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has led the antitrust effort.
Here are some of the biggest companies Khan and Biden have targeted.
Nvidia and Open AI
Federal investigators have been given the green light to investigate the biggest names in artificial intelligence: Nvidia, the leading maker of AI chips, and OpenAI, which created ChatGPT. Taking a divide-and-conquer approach, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission will investigate Nvidia and OpenAI, respectively, to identify potential antitrust violations in the AI arms race, according to The New York Times. The FTC will also investigate Microsoft and its multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI.
Living nation
In May, the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, accusing Attorney General Merrick Garland of “anticompetitive and illegal” business practices that have stifled innovation and led to poorer experiences for fans, artists and promoters . , and sellers.
Googling
After a yearslong antitrust lawsuit against Google, a federal judge ruled in August that the company had violated antitrust law by spending billions to keep its search engine as the default in Web browsers.
Prosecutors asked the judge to introduce “behavioral and structural remedies,” including breaking up or reorganizing the company, which would involve other tech giants such as Apple.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said he disagrees with the antitrust ruling and plans to appeal, a process that “will likely take many years,” he said.
Apple
The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in March, accusing the company of taking over the smartphone market by “slowing, demeaning, or outright blocking” competition. The company has created a “smartphone monopoly,” the Justice Department argued, using restrictive policies, accessories and software.
Amazon
The FTC sued Amazon last year, accusing the company of tricking customers into signing up for its Prime subscriptions. The FTC alleged that Amazon “knowingly defrauded millions of customers.” A Business Insider investigation previously found that the company had known about the confusing sign-in infrastructure for years, but did nothing about it. Meanwhile, an antitrust case against Amazon by the FTC is set to begin in 2026.
Meta
The FTC and dozens of states have filed suit against Meta, formerly Facebook, accusing the company of buying Instagram and WhatsApp to destroy competition.
“I think there’s a reason why they have at least one major monopolization case against each of the big four US tech companies,” Allensworth told BI. “Technology is too dominant. Technology has a dangerous level of market power, suppressing competition and creating products that are more dangerous and expensive than necessary.”
However, the Biden administration is focusing on more than just technology. It also intervened in the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, which a federal judge ultimately blocked, and Kroger’s bid to acquire Albertsons Companies, which is still pending following an FTC lawsuit.
Collectively, it sends a clear message to companies that “the problem goes beyond technology,” Allensworth said. “Other sectors are also suffering from concentration and could use some antitrust enforcement.”
But while the government can initiate investigations and lawsuits, the outcome is not in its hands.
“It really lies with the courts, and the courts are not immune to political change, but they are less susceptible to the winds of politics,” Allensworth said.
Have you worked at these companies? Do you have insight to share? Reach this reporter by email at kbalevic@businessinsider.com. Signal on request.
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