U.S. House of Representatives panel looking into abuses of market power by four big technology companies found they used “killer acquisitions” to smite rivals, charged exorbitant fees and forced small businesses into “oppressive” contracts in the name of profit.

The antitrust subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee recommended that Alphabet Inc’s Google, Apple, Amazon.com and Facebook with a combined market value of over $5 trillion - should not both control and compete in related businesses.  The panel’s report also broadly recommended structural separations but stopped short of saying a specific company should be broken up.

The scathing 449-page report - the result of the first such congressional review of the tech industry - suggested expansive changes to antitrust law and described dozens of instances where the companies misused their power, revealing corporate cultures apparently bent on doing what they could to maintain dominance over large portions of the internet.

“To put it simply, companies that once were scrappy, underdog startups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons,” the report said.

In anticipation of the report, Amazon warned in a blog post against “fringe notions of antitrust” and market interventions that “would kill off independent retailers and punish consumers by forcing small businesses out of popular online stores, raising prices and reducing consumer choice.”

Google said in a statement that it competes “fairly in a fast-moving and highly competitive industry. We disagree with today’s reports, which feature outdated and inaccurate allegations from commercial rivals about Search and other services.”

Facebook called itself “an American success story” in response to the report. “We compete with a wide variety of services with millions, even billions, of people using them. Acquisitions are part of every industry, and just one way we innovate new technologies to deliver more value to people,” the social network said.

Apple said, “Scrutiny is reasonable and appropriate but we vehemently disagree with the conclusions.” The company also defended its commission rates and said it would issue a more extensive response in the coming days.

After more than a year of investigation involving 1.3 million documents and more than 300 interviews, the committee led by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline found companies were running marketplaces where they also competed, creating “a position that enables them to write one set of rules for others, while they play by another.”

Source- Reuters