[MikeUt]

Would I prefer government enforce food safety standards, or let consumers decide what they want?

Would I prefer government enforce building safety codes, or let consumers decide what they want?

Would I completely ignore the fact that Google has sucked the air out of the room with their market dominance, so hardly any competitors are left for consumers to decide between?

[Fogest]

Let's not forget that any time a competitor starts taking part of their market or becoming successful they just buy them out with an amount of money that is hard for any sane person to turn down.

The WhatsApp founder seems pretty against Facebook and is encouraging and funding Signal. He took money from a company he doesn't believe in or like because who wouldn't. And this is despite him not liking Facebook. So realistically competition is great on paper, but in this case the competition already has such market dominance that any new company that tries will get squashed with a buy-out or other aggressive tactics. So realistically I don't see how competition will do anything.

[II2II]

The first and second case deals with issues that are mostly opaque to the consumer and affects their safety.

The third case is not actually a singular case. When we are talking about consumer facing services, there are many competitors in most cases. I suspect that it would even be difficult to make anti-trust arguments since the factors that funnel people towards Google is largely outside of Google's control.

Google's behaviour towards businesses is a different matter. While businesses may turn to the competition, their dominance means that avoiding Google will have negative consequences.

[robotresearcher]

I don't think public safety standards are the same thing as support level for free email, subscription music, etc.

We can all easily name multiple email and subscription music providers.

[MikeUt]

What about giant app stores that control almost all consumer spending in those markets? How many businesses can survive being banned by both Apple and Google's stores? Or even by just one?

Sure your business is destroyed, but you're right, you can easily get a new email address.

[robotresearcher]

Just to be clear, you are talking about the quality of b2b services, between parties that have entered a business relationship, not consumer protection.

[MikeUt]

b2b issues greatly affect consumers - there's no fabled "consumer choice" if a handful of businesses are allowed to dominate or decide who may enter their market/app store.

And when so many businesses are at the mercy of a few giant companies, we probably shouldn't deny them protection with the "it's a b2b matter" dismissal.