It seems that almost every day a headline blares the news of a new antitrust inquiry against one of the big tech firms. This barrage of cases means that a staggering 70 competition-related lawsuits or investigations are now collectively underway against Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook globally—up from 17 ongoing probes and cases two years ago, based on an analysis by The Information.
Such a rush of investigations casts a cloud over the future of the tech giants, as it may well lead to far-reaching curbs on the behaviors of the companies. The probes will at least absorb management attention. The inquiries are ongoing in more than a dozen countries as well as the EU. To help you keep track, we’ve listed the probes in a new database here. They overlap in scope, although broadly antitrust officials are looking for potential abuses by the companies in how they run everything from app and product-shopping stores to messaging, search and online advertising systems. (Our database excludes probes handled by consumer protection agencies.)
