Meantime, the Justice Department is pursuing — for now — cases that seek to end Google’s search hegemony and Apple’s alleged practice of making it harder for consumers to switch software or hardware.

The right-wing populist premier explained that he was ready to pull his own economic levers against American consumers in an interview published on Saturday.

That's not even the half of it, but none of that stuff will lower prices for consumers.

Ms Cardell added: "This is a matter of fairness – for both business and consumers – and we encourage the entire sector to take note."

A separate report showed a slight fall in confidence among consumers in their own finances and a much sharper one over the prospects for the wider economy.