Antitrust & Competition

On July 17, 2026, Beijing-based Moonshot AI released Kimi K3, reportedly matching Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 at a fraction of the cost. The White House subsequently accused Moonshot of building K3 by distilling Claude, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floating possible sanctions. Amodei escalated a campaign he had already been running (podcast interviews, public statements) claiming Chinese labs including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and Minimax 'stole' Claude's capabilities via large-scale distillation and that their benchmark scores are gamed, citing a held-back benchmark where Chinese models allegedly underperformed relative to their public SWE-bench scores. He proposed three policy responses: (1) chip export controls targeting China and smuggling networks, (2) crackdowns on large-scale distillation by Chinese labs, and (3) mandatory pre-release safety testing (cyber/bio/alignment) for 'sufficiently capable' models regardless of open or closed license or origin. Around July 25, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang posted an open letter opposing restrictions on open-weight models, with several AI companies publicly siding against Anthropic's framing. Critics — including a Washington Examiner op-ed and other independent analyses — argued each of Amodei's three proposals disproportionately burdens exactly the competitors currently undercutting Anthropic on price and performance (Chinese labs and open-weight developers who lack independent chip supply or resources for heavy compliance testing), amounting to a bid for regulatory capture dressed as safety advocacy. On July 28, Anthropic published a blog post ('Our position on open-weights models') with Amodei explicitly denying he supports a ban on open-weight models, distinguishing his opposition to state-backed distillation from opposition to open weights themselves.

Argentina's Buenos Aires provincial government opened a consumer-protection investigation in late May 2026 into MercadoLibre over allegedly abusive contract terms imposed on platform sellers and buyers, with regulators publicly indicating a fine of up to 1.8 billion pesos was under consideration. The probe followed earlier provincial enforcement against Rappi for undisclosed surcharges and is part of a broader Buenos Aires push to regulate platform contracts and undisclosed fees.

In April 2026, a US District Court issued remedies in the landmark Google search antitrust case: Google was prohibited from entering exclusive contracts for Search, Chrome, Assistant, and Gemini distribution; required to share its search index and user-interaction data with competitors; and placed under a six-year technical oversight committee. Both sides are appealing -- Google challenging the data-sharing requirement, and the DOJ seeking forced divestitures of Chrome and other assets.

Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), coordinating with Apple to defeat the bill in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. The bill would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress (whose members include Google) issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction.

Apple and Google coordinated lobbying to defeat California SB 1074 (the 'BASED Act'), which would have banned self-preferencing by platforms owned by companies worth over $1 trillion. The bill was killed in a 3-3 tie vote on April 20, 2026. Five trade groups including Chamber of Progress issued coordinated opposition 'within minutes' of introduction. Apple's Senior Director Tim Powderly and Google executive Kent Walker personally lobbied against the bill. Senator Scott Wiener described the opposition as a 'tidal wave' of corporate lobbying. Big Tech spent over $100M killing similar federal legislation in 2022.

India's Competition Commission (CCI) investigation, whose Director General report concluded in 2024 that Apple engaged in 'abusive conduct' on the iOS app platform by wrongfully mandating use of Apple's own in-app payment system, has continued to escalate through 2026. Apple has not submitted the financial data the CCI needs to calculate a penalty since October 2024, instead citing a separate case it filed in Delhi High Court challenging the constitutionality of India's antitrust penalty law. Because CCI penalties can be based on up to 10% of a company's global turnover over the prior three years, Apple faces a potential fine of as much as $38 billion if the CCI uses Apple's worldwide (rather than India-only) revenue as the base. In April 2026 the CCI set a final hearing after Apple's continued data withholding, and in June 2026 Apple escalated its defense by accusing CCI investigators of 'copy-pasting' submissions from rival companies (including Match/Tinder, PhonePe, and Paytm) rather than conducting independent analysis, and argued it is a 'minuscule player' with under 6% of India's smartphone market. A closed-door CCI hearing was held July 21, 2026, with a final decision still pending. Google previously made similar 'chilling effect' arguments to the CCI in 2023 but was still ordered to change its Android practices.

On March 12, 2026, EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera announced investigation into Nvidia for potential bundling practices that force buyers to purchase networking equipment to access AI chips. This is part of broader EU scrutiny of Big Tech's AI operations for competition distortions, separate from the ongoing US DOJ investigation.

On March 12, 2026, EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera announced an investigation into Meta over WhatsApp policies that may block competitors' AI chatbots from the platform. The investigation examines whether Meta is using its dominant messaging position to prevent rival AI services from reaching WhatsApp's user base, as part of broader EU scrutiny of Big Tech's AI operations.

In January 2026, a UK tribunal approved a £656 million ($840 million) class action against Valve representing up to 14 million UK gamers. The lawsuit alleges Valve has been price-rigging since 2018 through its 30% commission and anti-competitive practices on the Steam platform. Steam holds approximately 75% of the PC game distribution market. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney publicly voiced support for the lawsuit. A separate US class action (Wolfire Games v. Valve) with a certified class of ~32,000 publishers is also proceeding.

In December 2025, a US federal court certified a nationwide class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster, representing millions of consumers who paid allegedly inflated service fees. The class certification enables billions of dollars in potential damages claims. The lawsuit alleges Ticketmaster exploited its monopoly position to charge supracompetitive fees that would not exist in a competitive ticketing market.

Chief Judge James Boasberg ruled after a six-week bench trial that the FTC failed to prove Meta unlawfully monopolized 'personal social networking.' The court found TikTok and YouTube are legitimate competitors, noting Americans spend only 17% of time on Facebook viewing friends' content. The ruling was the most decisive government loss in any major Big Tech antitrust case. The FTC appealed in January 2026.

The UK Competition Appeal Tribunal concluded Apple abused its dominant position by charging excessive commissions on App Store purchases between 2015 and 2024. The tribunal found Apple's commissions excessive and unfair, estimating fair fees at 17.5% for distribution and 10% for payment services versus Apple's actual rates. Damages were awarded to consumers for unlawful overcharges passed on by developers. Apple has indicated it will appeal.

In October 2025, China's SAMR opened antitrust investigation into Qualcomm's June 2025 acquisition of Israeli automotive chipmaker Autotalks. Qualcomm completed the deal without filing merger notification despite SAMR's March 2024 written notice requiring filing. Qualcomm had initially claimed it was dropping the deal after regulatory notice, then proceeded anyway. With $17.8B China revenue (46% of total), Qualcomm faces potential penalty up to $1.8 billion. Shares fell 4% on probe announcement.

Consumer group Which? filed class action lawsuit on behalf of 29 million UK consumers who purchased Apple and Samsung smartphones between October 2015 and January 2024. The lawsuit alleges Qualcomm abused market dominance in chipset and patent-licensing markets, forcing phone manufacturers to pay inflated fees passed to consumers. Five-week trial began October 2025 at London's Competition Appeal Tribunal. Potential average payout of £17 per device if successful. Ruling on liability expected late 2025.

In October 2025, ARM lost its lawsuit against Qualcomm after a U.S. District Court confirmed Qualcomm's jury trial victory and rejected ARM's claims that Qualcomm breached architecture license agreements. ARM had sued Qualcomm in August 2022 for breach of contract related to the Nuvia acquisition. Critics noted that now that ARM owns Ampere Computing and directly competes with its own customers, it lends credence to Qualcomm's claims of anticompetitive behavior. The lawsuit creates risk by pushing chip designers toward open-source RISC-V alternatives, creating existential threat to ARM's licensing model.

The EU Commission fined Delivery Hero €223 million (€329 million total with Glovo) for running a cartel from 2018-2022. This was the first EU case finding a labor market cartel and first sanctioning anti-competitive use of a minority stake. Violations included: no-poach agreements (not hiring each other's employees), exchange of commercially sensitive information, and geographic market allocation.

European Union fined Delivery Hero and subsidiary Glovo €329 million in June 2025 for violating antitrust rules between 2018-2022. First time EU sanctioned agreement limiting workers' freedom to move to competitors. Companies exchanged sensitive business information, agreed not to recruit each other's employees (initially managers, later extended to all staff except self-employed delivery drivers), and divided up national food delivery markets across Europe. By July 2020, firms stopped competing entirely by avoiding overlapping markets, limiting consumer choice and likely raising prices.

The European Commission fined Delivery Hero EUR 223M and Glovo EUR 106M (total EUR 329M) for operating a cartel in online food delivery from 2018-2022. The companies engaged in no-poach agreements for employees, exchanged commercially sensitive information, and allocated geographic markets. This was the EU's first antitrust case involving a minority shareholding and first enforcement of EU competition rules concerning labor market competition.

The European Commission found Apple breached its anti-steering obligation under the Digital Markets Act by imposing restrictions that prevent app developers from fully benefiting from alternative distribution channels outside the App Store. Apple's practices were found to limit competition and consumer choice in the app ecosystem.

The European Commission issued its first-ever Digital Markets Act fine, finding Meta's 'consent or pay' model violated DMA obligations to give consumers a choice of service using less personal data. Meta offered EU users of Facebook and Instagram only a binary choice between consenting to full data combination for personalized ads or paying a subscription. Internal documents revealed the model 'was never intended to comply' with the DMA, with Meta's own estimates predicting below 1% subscription uptake. The violation period ran from March to November 2024.