Big Tech Antitrust - Google Apple Amazon Meta
Quality reviewed September 2026
- Grades
- Grades 9-12
- Time
- About two 50-minute class periods
- Includes
- 11 ready-to-teach files
- Format
- Word (.docx) · PowerPoint (.pptx)
- Slide deck
- Guided notes
- Guided notes teacher key
- Activity + answer key
- Quiz + answer key
- Exit ticket + answer key
- Teacher guide
- Teacher presentation notes
What students do
- Apply the four features of monopoly to Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta and identify which features each company actually satisfies
- Define network effects and explain why digital platforms reach monopoly scale faster than physical-economy firms
- Read the August 2024 ruling in United States v. Google alongside three market-share charts to evaluate the case against each company
- Write a Final Recommendation Memo naming which Big Tech company has the strongest antitrust case and what remedy the DOJ or FTC should pursue
What it covers
- Google's roughly 90 percent search share and the $20 billion a year Apple default-search payments at the center of the 2024 ruling
- Apple's 30 percent App Store commission and Meta's killer acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp
- The difference between a behavioral remedy and a structural remedy in an antitrust case
Learning targets
- Apply the four defining features of MONOPOLY from TK 22 (one seller, no close substitutes, high barriers to entry, price-maker firm) to Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta and identify WHICH features each Big Tech company satisfies
- Define NETWORK EFFECTS and explain why digital platforms reach monopoly scale faster than physical-economy firms - and why network effects are the most durable barrier to entry in the Big Tech antitrust cases
- Read the August 2024 federal court ruling in U.S. v. Google (Judge Mehta) and three Big Tech market-share charts, then write a Final Recommendation Memo identifying which Big Tech company has the strongest antitrust case against it and what remedy the DOJ or FTC should seek
Peek inside
The Four Active Cases (Updated 2024)
U.S. v. GOOGLE search - filed 2020, RULING August 5 2024 (Google lost)
U.S. v. APPLE - filed March 2024, walled garden + App Store
FTC v. AMAZON - filed September 2023, self-preferencing
FTC v. META - filed December 2020, Instagram + WhatsApp
The Four Active Cases
U.S. v. GOOGLE search was filed in 2020 and the RULING came in August (year).
U.S. v. APPLE was filed in (month) 2024.
FTC v. AMAZON was filed in September (year).
FTC v. META was filed in December (year).
What All Four Have In Common
1. Marcus opens with the core market structure. A market with ONE seller, no close substitutes, and high barriers that keep new firms out is a - the structure the four features describe.
Why this matters
A federal ruling in August 2024 found Google broke antitrust law paying Apple roughly twenty billion dollars a year just to stay the default search engine, an odd way to spend money unless default status is worth even more. The same four-features test against Google's 90% search share and Apple's 30% App Store commission uses real numbers, not opinion.
I spend real time on network effects here, since a platform that gets more valuable as more people join can reach monopoly scale faster than any physical firm ever could. The Final Recommendation Memo I require forces a choice between a behavioral and a structural remedy, ending the unit on an argument.
From one teacher to another
In August 2024, a federal judge ruled that Google broke antitrust law by paying Apple roughly twenty billion dollars a year to stay the default search engine, and that single ruling anchors the whole case study. Students apply the same four-features-of-monopoly test to Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta, reading actual market-share numbers instead of taking my word for who has power and who doesn't. It ends with a Final Recommendation Memo I require from every student, naming one company and one remedy, so the unit closes on an argument instead of a summary.
Every file in this toolkit
-
Activity (Student)
Marcus Holt sends students through three charts ranking Apple, Amazon, and Meta before they weigh a Chrome divestiture against a search default ban and file a memo naming one company and a remedy.
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Activity (Answer Key)
Definitions cover self-preferencing, killer acquisition, gatekeeper, and the Sherman Act, and scored scenarios rank a Chrome divestiture against a search default ban before the memo grades four required terms.
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Exit Ticket (Student)
Multiple-choice items test which conduct the August 2024 antitrust ruling found illegal, Apple's standard App Store commission, and the difference between a network effect and a killer acquisition. Students then explain the case using three vocabulary terms and one lesson figure.
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Exit Ticket (Answer Key)
Default payments to Apple mark the conduct the ruling found illegal, a 30 percent rate is what Apple charges on App Store sales, and network effects act as a durable barrier while a killer acquisition removes a rising rival. Scoring checks three terms, two cases, one number.
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Guided Notes (Student)
Four federal filings anchor these notes, a 2020 search case, the March 2024 suit over App Store commissions, and the case accusing Meta of buying Instagram and WhatsApp to kill rivals, then blanks build toward network effects, walled garden, and the EU's six gatekeepers.
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Guided Notes (Teacher Key)
Answer blanks date every suit, from 2020 through the September 2023 case against Amazon's Buy Box practices, then define three remedy paths: a structural breakup, a behavioral conduct rule, and the forced interoperability the EU already requires of six gatekeepers.
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Quiz (Student)
Four features of monopoly get applied to Apple, Amazon, Meta, and the search engine named in the case, alongside network effects, a killer acquisition, and the law behind the 2024 ruling.
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Quiz (Answer Key)
The industry leader holds a 90 percent search share, the Sherman Act stands as the statute behind the 2024 ruling, and the FTC wants the Instagram and WhatsApp deals undone. Network effects also explain why this monopoly outlasts industrial-era barriers.
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Slides
Judge Amit Mehta's 2024 search ruling opens the case before three more cases stack up beside it, Apple's walled garden, Amazon's Buy Box algorithm, and Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp purchases, with market shares running 38% to 90% ahead of three remedy options.
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Teacher Guide
Structural divestiture versus interoperability mandates frames the discussion set, asking whether forcing a Chrome sale or an Instagram and WhatsApp spinoff is the only fix for network effects. Students in one extension track a live antitrust case for four weeks.
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Teacher Presentation Notes
Judge Amit Mehta's ruling opens the script, set against three still-active suits filed through 2024. A vocabulary slide defines self-preferencing and killer acquisition, then names the EU Digital Markets Act's six gatekeepers before students debate whose case is weakest.
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