Should we dismantle the GAFA?

By: Jean-Pierre Boris Follow

As the global economy struggles to recover from the enormous economic shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, large Internet companies are doing better than playing their game. They are occupying a growing place in the economy global. Which sometimes poses a problem.

Publicity

We learned that very recently. The market capitalization of the Apple company has exceeded $ 2 trillion. The Californian company alone is worth more than all the companies listed on the Paris Stock Exchange index, the CAC40. In two short years, Apple has seen its value double. This performance is recorded as the world economy is going through a very serious crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And in general, the giants of the net, Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, saw their turnover explode during this period. A period in which many other companies have bitten and will bite the dust.

How to explain this paradox ? How are these companies developing? Can their success be explained by their tax optimization policy? What place do they occupy today in the global economy? If they are hegemonic, should they be dismantled? Here are the questions asked by Jean-Pierre Boris to his guests: 

- Sarah Guillou , economist at OFCE where she is deputy director of the innovation and competition department. Questions of international industrial economics, economics of public policies are at the heart of its work .

- Jean-Luc Gaffard , associate researcher at OFCE, in the same laboratory as Sarah Guillou. He is the author of numerous works, the latest of which is entitled Le temps regained de l'énergie, co-written with Mario Amendola and Francesco Saraceno (Editions Odile Jacob).

Reports: 

- One of the means used by GAFA to create content is to distribute press articles and reports produced by media independent of them. But these media are not paid. It is a subject of dispute between these companies and the Australian government which wants to force them to pay for the press content they broadcast. A new code of conduct, which should govern relations between Google, Facebook and the media, has just been unveiled by the Australian competition commission. It will be presented to Parliament within a few weeks. The measure is of course welcomed by the major press groups. Google and Facebook are trying by all means to derail the process ... It is an Eco report from here Eco elsewhere by Grégory Plesse in Sydney.

- One of the means of redistributing the wealth accumulated by these companies is by paying taxes. In Europe, GAFAs - in their majority, with the notable exception of Amazon - have their headquarters in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, where they benefit from an advantageous tax policy. Proof of this is: Apple was allowed by the European Court to pay taxes only on its profits in a ruling in July. What interest for Ireland? Report by Emeline Vin in Dublin.

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