Big Tech companies become too powerful. In the US, they passed anti-trust legislation since long to lessen the dominance of big companies. Sherman Act(1890), Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC) and the Clayton Act, are examples of such legislation. To begin with, it was felt that if a company dominates a market, it would rule the prices charged for its products. These days the concern about the prices has taken a backseat. Instead, there is a concern about the preferential treatment these companies accord to their own products. Otherwise, their products are free, say Google and Facebook.

There is cut-throat competition between the tech companies. MS and Google compete in search engines, operating systems and clouds. MS and Amazon compete in cloud and AI. Facebook, Google, and Amazon vie for the advertising revenue. Apple and MS and Google compete in cell phone applications.

What are the issues here? to shut out rivals. To use users’ data.

One way out is to allow the companies to operate as they do, or to maintain the status quo. Another way is to place restrictions on them and force them to share innovations with rivals. There is one more option. They should share their patents and help new startup to emerge. Bell Labs allowed its patents of transistors and lasers to be used by Fairchild and Intel. IBM’s restrictions helped MS. Anti-trust action against MS prevented it from dominating Internet. Therefore, google and others could emerge in Internet Space.

India has MRTP Act (1969) and Competition Commission of India Act.