David Cicilline, the head of the House antitrust subcommittee, has suggested imposing a version of the Glass-Steagall rules—which forced banks to separate commercial and investment banking—on the technology industry. His comments add to growing calls from senior figures in the Democratic party to curb the market power held by the likes of Facebook, Google, and Amazon.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Cicilline said, “One of the things that we did in the financial services space is Glass-Steagall, where you separate out functions.
“It’s an interesting idea whether there would be a way to think about separating what platforms do versus people who are selling products and information, a Glass-Steagall for the international [technology companies].”
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it was setting up a task force to look at competition specifically in the technology industry, which will go as far as reviewing deals that have already been completed. Announcing the task force, Bruce Hoffman, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, pointed out that the agency had the power to force companies to unwind mergers if it decided to.
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