It was always just a matter of time before the extraordinary profits and margins of America's big tech companies – and their dominant market power – attracted the attention of regulators. The EU launched the crusade with its data protection rules and its activist competition regulator, which has levied a number of significant fines on companies like Google and Facebook for what it sees as abusive, anti-competitive market practices. Now, regulators in America are starting to look more closely at these one-time darlings and the power they wield. Dramatic action is pretty unlikely, despite calls to break up Google and so on. What's more likely is an increase in rules and regulations – and an associated increase in costs – that will bring margins down a little and may curb growth. Facebook has been trying to get ahead of the law with its vaunted "pivot to privacy" (just the latest in its series of pivots including the disastrous "pivot to video"). But as state regulators have stepped up enforcement, federal lawmakers are under pressure to act. We'll see some important moves in the space in the months and years to come. – Felicity Duncan

Congress, enforcement agencies target tech

By Brent Kendall and John D. McKinnon

(The Wall Street Journal) WASHINGTON – Federal antitrust enforcers and lawmakers are poised to scrutinise the nation's largest technology companies for potential anticompetitive practices, bringing a new regulatory focus to the vast markets for digital services and a new level of concern for investors.

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