New York (AFP)

Washington officially launched on Tuesday an extensive survey of US technology giants, social networks, search engines as trade sites, suspected of resorting to anti-competitive practices.

Authorities do not name the companies targeted, but seem to target companies like Google, Facebook or Amazon, dominant in their respective markets.

Although it sells mainly iPhones and other electronic devices, Apple could also be in the line of fire to the extent that the group manages, with the App Store, an online store.

According to a statement, the US Department of Justice wants to know if these companies "engage in practices that have reduced competition, prevented innovation or affected consumers."

US regulators and electors of the competition have for several months already been bombarding the tech giants, accused of being too powerful or even monopolistic.

The judicial commission of the House of Representatives thus announced in early June the opening of a survey on "competition in the digital market", saying that "a small number of dominant and unregulated platforms" had "extraordinary power in trade, communication and information online ".

Google, for example, is regularly suspected of favoring, in the search engine results, its own services to the detriment of its rivals.

- Fears of Internet users -

The purpose of the investigation announced Tuesday is "to assess the conditions of competition on online platforms in an objective and balanced and to ensure that Americans have the choice of competition," said the statement.

The authorities want to "take into account the widespread fears of consumers, businesses and entrepreneurs" who have "raised concerns about search services, social networks and e-commerce platforms".

"Without the discipline of meaningful competition, digital platforms can employ ways that do not meet the demands of consumers," commented Makan Delrahim, antitrust officer at the US Department of Justice, in the statement.

US authorities are not the only ones to blame the Silicon Valley giants for their practices.

Accused of violating the rules of competition, the European Commission has already imposed three heavy fines in less than two years to Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and announced last week the opening of a "thorough investigation" "on the online commerce giant Amazon, which it suspects to use to its advantage the data from independent retailers who sell on its site.

US regulators have the power to not only impose savage fines for non-compliance with competition rules, but also to impose "structural" remedies to ensure more competition in the marketplace, including splits.

However, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives says such a penalty seems unlikely.

"This titanic fight between Washington and tech giants makes more noise than bad" for the sector and "will probably result in some modifications of the economic model rather than forced dissolutions of activities", he said. commented in a note.

In any case, the companies concerned will be able to answer these accusations on the occasion of the publication of their quarterly results, Wednesday for Facebook and Thursday for Amazon and Alphabet.

© 2019 AFP