Top senator fears Big Tech at home as Alexa, Nest dominate

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Congress takes up the issue on Tuesday of yet another area where big tech firms — in this case, Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google — dominate, this time in smart home devices where they battle smaller companies like speaker maker Sonos Inc.

The hearing takes place at a time of extraordinary interest in tougher antitrust enforcement, much of it focused on the biggest U.S. technology companies. One result has been a series of investigations and several federal and state lawsuits filed against Google and Facebook as well as a long list of antitrust bills.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, who chairs the antitrust subcommittee, is hoping to act before the existing tech giants, in this case Amazon and Google, establish themselves as unassailable.