Bradley Partner Chad Elder Quoted in The Epoch Times on Big Tech Antitrust Probes

Bradley partner Chad Elder was quoted in The Epoch Times on the recent congressional probes into tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook to decide if a change is needed in the country's antitrust laws, or even if the companies should be broken up because of their market power.  

Elder said that while it’s unclear if Congress will take any meaningful action, there does appear to be “considerable sentiment among both liberals and conservatives that something should be done.”

“Representatives on both sides of the aisle remarked that this was an issue that had unusually high bipartisan support,” Elder recalled.

“I think it is unlikely that companies like Amazon or Facebook would be ‘broken up’ entirely, in part because, despite their faults, they are so popular among their users,” he added. “But it is possible that certain aspects of their business could be spun off or regulated.”

There are several actions that Congress could take. One option is new legislation to supplement or amend existing federal antitrust laws, or heightened pressure to enforce existing law to punish perceived violations, according to Elder. He said he wouldn’t be surprised to see legislation regarding political censorship on social media platforms such as Facebook, though he noted that it was “wholly apart from antitrust considerations.”

The original article, "Divided Congress Finds Bipartisanship in Big Tech Monopoly Concerns," appeared in The Epoch Times on July 30, 2020.