> How do you ensure competition when Big Tech can (and do) literally buy any and all potential competition?
The obvious answer is to subject such acquisitions to regulatory approval, and change the practices around such approval to make it much harder to acquire a competitor.
There's always going to need to be some regulation, at a minimum. I think the question is what regulation will be the most effective at accomplishing the goal?
In fact, above a certain size there is basically no benefit to society in allowing companies to acquire other companies. Mergers and acquisitions by extremely large organizations should simply not be permitted, unless they can demonstrate a clear benefit to the public good (with a very high burden of proof).
Doing that without first breaking up these giants would be a disaster, though.
The obvious answer is to subject such acquisitions to regulatory approval, and change the practices around such approval to make it much harder to acquire a competitor.
There's always going to need to be some regulation, at a minimum. I think the question is what regulation will be the most effective at accomplishing the goal?