South Africa: Competition Commission investigates Google’s advertising monopoly

Zach Meyers, a senior research fellow at The Centre for European Reform, believes to stop anti-competitive practices, we must first stop the “conglomerate effect”. He said, “firms like Google offer a range of different services which all work together seamlessly, making it the firm’s dominance in different services mutually reinforcing.”

However, Meyers says, regulators like the EU Competition Commission will struggle to come toe-to-toe with big tech firms like Google. He said, “the steps involved may involve short-term pain for consumers because a firm’s ecosystem of services may need to be made less seamless. There is not always a guarantee of long-term gains, for example, many of Europe’s past attempts to rein in Google have not achieved much.”