The Department of Justice has postponed until spring pursuing potential antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Google because of budget concerns.
Politico reported Dec. 23 that the DOJ won't reach a decision on whether to prosecute the tech giants until at least March. The companies have been under DOJ investigation since 2019 and the department hoped to conclude the probes by the end of 2021, the Politico report states.
The Justice Department has been investigating Apple for "its tight control over the ecosystem for iPhone and iPad apps," alleging the company limits how app developers can communicate with consumers. Google's dominance of ad-buying and -selling technology is the focus of a DOJ suit filed last year, Politico reports.
A chief concern for federal prosecutors is whether they have the funds to combat corporate behemoths like Apple and Google; each has a market value of more than $1 trillion. Engaging either in a court battle would be expensive: Texas alone needs $43 million for its part of a multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Google, according to state Attorney General Ken Paxton,
President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan would have provided $500 million to the DOJ for antitrust prosecutions, but that package failed when Sen. Joe Manchin (D- W. Va.) refused to support it. Senate Democrats have announced plans to hold a vote on the $1.7 trillion Build Back Better bill in January, Politico reports.
Congress proposed giving antitrust prosecutors an addition $16 million in its fiscal 2022 funding bill for the DOJ, according to the Politico report.
The money “would help ease some of the DOJ’s budget crunch," the report states, "But it could also get swallowed up by cases already in litigation, including the Google search suit and lawsuits aiming to block a major sugar merger and a proposed union between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.”
