アメリカ合衆国の連邦議会の下院の司法委員会の反トラスト法、法、及び行政法小委員会による「デジタル市場における 競争の調査、多数派の職員/スタッフの報告書及び勧告」 (2020 年) (2・完)

Abstract

On October 6, 2020, the majority staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law issued a report titled “Investigation of Competition in Digital Markets, Majority Staff Report and Recommendations.” The report is the result of a sixteen-month bipartisan investigation that was launched in June 2019. "The purpose of the investigation was to: (1) document competition problems in digital markets; (2) examine whether dominant firms are engaging in anticompetitive conduct; and (3) assess whether existing antitrust laws, competition policies, and current enforcement levels are adequate to address these issues." The investigation was clearly focused on the market power and the dominance of the big technology companies called “GAFA,” i.e. Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. The Subcommittee staff concluded that GAFA posses "significant and durable market power due to several factors, including a high volume of acquisition" and their role as "gatekeepers" of key distribution channels that makes it possible to control access to digital markets. In addition, the staff found that GAFA engaged in a wide variety of anti-competitive conduct including self-preferencing and "killer acquisitions" of nascent and/or potential competitors to maintain their market power. Thus, the Subcommittee staff also provided recommendations "for areas of legislative activity to address the rise and abuse of market power in the digital economy, as well as areas that warrant additional Congressional attention." With the rise of big technology companies like GAFA, and/or “BAT,” i.e. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, governmental authorities all over the world are now facing the similar problems as mentioned above. They should cooperate in studying the issues and thereby design the additional regulatory framework that is necessary in the digital world