For the past three years the American public has trusted Amazon and Google more than the federal government. Despite that higher level of trust, the federal government is suing Google and Amazon.
According to new data from the Center for Growth and Opportunity, almost half of voting Amercians trust Google (42%) and Amazon (46%) with their data, while only 1 in 4 voting Americans trust the federal government (26%) with their data.
These two companies have nearly double the rates of trust compared to the federal government.
To be sure, Google and Amazon are not without fault. Amazon’s marketplace includes many thousands of unsafe and counterfeit products that the company seems unable to completely tackle. Google, best known for its search engine, can make seemingly arbitrary and sudden decisions that harm small and medium-sized businesses.
It’s puzzling then that the less-trusted federal government, along with most states, are suing to transform the more trusted Google search, make Amazon Prime more expensive or even to break up Amazon.
Just last week the biggest antitrust trial since Microsoft’s trial in 1998 began. At issue is Google’s search dominance, with the federal government (the Department of Justice) and state attorneys general asserting that Google acted anticompetitively by paying for exclusivity deals with Apple or favoring Google search on Android (owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company) devices. There are many issues at stake but the underlying assumption is that consumers wouldn’t use Google search at such high rates but for these arrangements.
Meanwhile, the federal government via the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Amazon of making Prime membership too difficult to cancel. The FTC on Tuesday filed its much anticipated lawsuit aimed at potentially breaking up the whole of Amazon. This was a lawsuit expected ever since Lina Khan became chair of the FTC, a chairmanship that has been credited to her famous 2017 article in the Yale Law Journal, “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox.”
These suits will all negatively affect consumers’ experience using these platforms.
They also reflect a mismatch between the opinions of the American public and those in these two government agencies. Were the federal government to be successful in these suits, these services could become more expensive whether in terms of cost or inconvenience. When given a choice, consumers usually choose Google. Speculatively, were the government to succeed in their Google suit, users could be forced to choose a search engine option while setting up a new phone. History tells us they’ll choose Google anyway.
Amazon’s size has allowed it to economize in storing and delivering goods, passing along those savings to consumers.
It is important and the proper role of the federal government to oversee and ensure the largest companies in the world aren’t harming consumers by self-interested choices.
However, it’s this very self-interest that’s been a boon to customers all over the U.S. and the world. In these cases, the less trustworthy federal government should carefully consider the costs before impacting the companies Americans use and trust even more.
— Tribune News Service