Open Markets Institute & Mozilla Release New Report on Preventing Monopoly Control Over AI and Promoting Open Innovation & the Public Good
BRUSSELS – The Open Markets Institute and Mozilla have published a comprehensive new report titled "Stopping Big Tech from Becoming Big AI: A Roadmap for Using Competition Policy to Keep Artificial Intelligence Open for All", urging governments and regulators to take immediate steps to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) remains a competitive and innovative field, rather than being dominated by a few tech giants.
With AI rapidly becoming a cornerstone of the global economy, the report warns that society stands at a critical crossroads: One path leads to a future where AI is controlled by a small number of powerful corporations, threatening innovation, consumer privacy, individual liberty and democracy. The other path, the report advocates, leads to a diverse and competitive market where AI is developed by a wide range of participants – public, private, and non-profit – and serves the broader public interest.
“The control that a handful of tech monopolies are exerting over the nascent AI industry must not be allowed to go unchecked,” said Max von Thun, Director of Europe & Transatlantic Partnerships at the Open Markets Institute and one of the report’s co-authors. “Governments already have many of the tools they need to break the tightening grip of the gatekeepers. But if they fail to act now, they risk locking in monopolistic control that will undermine innovation, safety and resilience for decades to come.”
The report highlights several key threats to competition in AI, including exclusive partnerships, self-preferencing, and the control of essential inputs like computing power. These tactics, while often invisible to consumers, concentrate power in the hands of dominant firms and stifle innovation. The report calls on regulators to act quickly, using a range of existing tools from competition policy to block anti-competitive mergers, nullify restrictive partnerships, break up dominant gatekeepers, and impose rules that guarantee fair access to AI technologies.
"Competition authorities around the world have numerous existing tools to ensure that the AI industry remains open and fair,” said Daniel Hanley, Senior Legal Analyst at Open Markets and report co-author. “They should use them.”
Key Recommendations from the Report:
Strengthen Ex-ante Digital Competition Regimes: Ensure new regulatory frameworks can proactively address emerging threats to competition in AI.
Block Mergers and Anticompetitive Partnerships: Prevent dominant firms from solidifying control over AI by halting mergers and breaking up existing exclusive agreements that limit market diversity.
Break Up Concentrations of Power: Target the concentration of power across the AI technology stack by applying structural separation and vertical integration restrictions.
Guarantee Access to Essential Inputs: Impose non-discrimination obligations on dominant firms to ensure fair access to computing power and other critical AI resources.
Enable Consumer and Business Switching: Empower consumers and businesses by enforcing data portability and interoperability in cloud and AI services.
The report also emphasizes the need for a coordinated global approach, calling for governments worldwide to collaborate in regulating AI, given the international nature of the technology and its development.
“A few layers of the AI value chain are dynamic and have a range of firms seeking to compete and innovate. However, many AI markets are already characterised by the looming presence of the same big tech companies that dominate today's digital markets,” said Kush Amlani, Global Competition & Regulatory Counsel, Mozilla Corporation “This is not an accident. If policymakers and enforcers do not act comprehensively and collectively, we risk repeating the same mistakes of the last 20 years. The "Stopping Big Tech Becoming Big AI" report clearly lays out these issues. It also puts forward a roadmap to ensure that tomorrow's businesses, consumers and citizens benefit from competition, innovation and choice.”
Mozilla and the Open Markets Institute argue that competition in AI can lead to better outcomes for consumers and businesses, including more innovation, stronger privacy protections, and a more transparent digital economy. Rather than focusing solely on profit maximization and surveillance, firms could compete by offering socially beneficial AI products and services.
The report calls for decisive action, urging governments and competition enforcers to activate existing tools to prevent the monopolization of AI before it’s too late. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to protect the future of AI and ensure that it benefits everyone, not just a few tech giants,” the report concludes.
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