CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday told investors he thinks the government’s antitrust lawsuits against prominent names in Big Tech — Apple, Alphabet‘s Google and Amazon — aren’t justified.
“Honestly, I wish the White House would just admit the truth: They want to make the biggest businesses less powerful,” he said. “And then, why don’t you just try to pass a law, though? Rather than trying to get the mega caps under existing laws that they really haven’t broken.”
The Federal Trade Commission’s case against Amazon alleges that the company wields its “monopoly power” to undermine competition — inflating prices, decreasing quality for consumers and unlawfully excluding rivals. The Department of Justice accused Alphabet’s Google of seeking to control all sides of the digital advertising market, which harms website creators and advertisers. The DOJ also alleged Apple has a “smartphone monopoly” that makes it difficult and pricey for consumers and developers to venture outside the Apple ecosystem.
Cramer asserted that “it’s not illegal to beat your competitors,” doubling down on his stance that these suits are driven by the government’s desire that the three companies not to be so large and powerful.
“Let’s think about what happens if FTC and Justice get their way: If they crush Amazon, do we have to go back to the store and at least pay a lot more for Prime? If they annihilate Google, I guess we’ll take our queries to Claude 3,” Cramer said. “And if they get [Apple CEO] Tim Cook, maybe for the first time, someone will want a Nokia smartphone.”
The DOJ and the FTC did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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