The DOJ's antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, lays out potential antitrust arguments the US government may use against big tech
KEY POINTS — Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim laid out some possible antitrust arguments against big tech in a new speech in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Context & Ripple Effects
Delrahim, confirmed in September 2017 and already leading the DOJ's lawsuit over AT&T's proposed merger with Time Warner (profiled at the time), is now telegraphing the government's theory of the case against the largest tech platforms before any complaint is filed. The Tel Aviv speech lands weeks ahead of the DOJ's formal antitrust review of search, social media, and retail services announced in July 2019.
First-order effects
- The platforms named in the DOJ's search, social, and retail review now have advance notice of the legal arguments they will face, giving their counsel time to shape conduct and defenses before formal charges land.
Second-order effects
- Delrahim followed through within months by warning that amassing vast quantities of consumer data could itself raise competition concerns (his data-hoarding warning) — signaling that data scale, not just pricing or mergers, is becoming a theory of harm platforms must defend against.
Third-order effects
- The framework outlives its author: five years later, Assistant AG Jonathan Kanter is applying the same choke-point logic to AI, cloud, GPUs, and data (Kanter's stated examination), suggesting the DOJ has institutionalized platform-monopoly scrutiny across administrations rather than treating it as one chief's agenda.
The trend: US antitrust enforcement is evolving from merger cases like AT&T-Time Warner into a durable doctrine targeting data scale and platform choke points, carried across successive DOJ leadership.