Microsoft, Google, and a New Era of Antitrust.

The article focuses on recent U.S. antitrust actions targeting major technology companies such as Microsoft and Google, highlighting the challenges regulators face under existing laws that emphasize consumer harm, typically through price increases, rather than newer concerns like data control and platform self-preferencing. It discusses how these high-profile cases, even when unsuccessful, serve to deter future mergers and encourage voluntary concessions, while also pressuring Congress to update antitrust legislation. The piece emphasizes the growing influence of European regulators, who have enacted more expansive competition laws, and the resulting complex, multi-jurisdictional enforcement landscape that companies must navigate globally. It concludes with strategic recommendations for businesses to engage proactively with regulators, frame deals to address antitrust concerns, and be prepared to compromise amid evolving legal and political dynamics.