Is the way we use and access the internet about to change forever? Big Tech companies Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Amazon and Apple are all caught in different anti-trust lawsuits in the US.

The federal government’s Department of Justice, along with 37 States, has alleged that Google is using its dominance in the search engine market (with a share of 90 per cent) to eliminate competition.

They say that Google is paying about $10 billion annually to Apple, Mozilla Firefox and others to ensure its place as the default search provider on smartphones and web browsers. This has led to fewer choices to customers. The tech giant has denied these allegations.

Meanwhile, Epic Games is taking Apple to the US Supreme Court to clarify aspects of the country’s antitrust laws. It alleged that Apple’s rules (where app developers pay commissions of up to 30 per cent on in-app purchases) violate these laws. It lost the case in 2021 in a trial court. However, the court ordered Apple to provide users a link to other third-party payment methods. An appeals court upheld the lower court’s ruling.

In its case against Amazon, the US’s Federal Trade Commission, and regulators from 17 States, alleged that the e-commerce giant unfairly promotes its own platform and services at the expense of third-party sellers who rely on it for distribution. Amazon has rejected these claims, and that the lawsuit could increase prices for both customers and sellers.

What could happen in these cases? These cases could go on for several years and the punishment varies from fines worth billions of dollars to these tech giants split up into smaller entities forcefully. These Big Tech companies are also facing more legal troubles across the world as countries, including India, look to challenge their monopolistic tendencies.

One thing is clear, Big Tech’s days of unquestioned dominance over the internet are over.

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