Reuters
FTC Chairman Joe Simons.
- The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission Joe Simons said the agency is investigating "multiple" major tech platforms over antitrust concerns.
- Facebook disclosed in June that it was the subject of and FTC investigation, but otherwise no other tech companies have officially disclosed they're being probed.
- Media reports have suggested the FTC is also probing Amazon, but nothing has been officially confirmed.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission said on Monday that his agency had multiple investigations of tech platforms, in addition to its known probe of Facebook, but did not identify them.
Big tech companies like Facebook, Alphabet's Google, Amazon, and Apple face a slew of antitrust probes by the federal government, state attorneys general and congress. It has previously been reported that the FTC's focus was on Facebook and Amazon.
FTC Chair Joe Simons said the agency's Technology Enforcement Division, or TED, was focusing its probes of multi-sided platforms on illegal conduct and mergers that previously won antitrust approval.
"We can say publicly that they're investigating Facebook because Facebook disclosed that," he told the American Bar Association 2019 Antitrust Fall Forum. "I also want to say that TED has in addition to Facebook, multiple other investigations going on into major platforms." Simons did not say which additional companies he was referencing.
Earlier this year the FTC also slapped Facebook with $5 billion fine over its handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and the company disclosed it June that it was the subject of an ongoing investigation by the agency. Reports have surfaced about FTC investigators honing in on Amazon and questioning third-party sellers, but no official investigation has been announced.
In addition to the FTC probes, the Justice Department and House of Representatives Judiciary Committee are looking into all four big tech companies. At the same time. Dozens of state attorneys general are also investigating Google and Facebook.
