06/17/2021

House Unveils Big Tech Antitrust Legislation

They feel unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over the economy

Last week, bipartisan legislators in the House of Representatives introduced a package of bills that would make the biggest changes to antitrust laws in decades. The legislation, while not specifying companies, would likely target Google, Facebook, Amazon and possibly Microsoft.

In particular, the package would eliminate “self-preferencing” often used by tech giants to promote their products and reduce visibility for those of rivals. Other bills within the legislative package would also require a platform to refrain from any merger unless it can show the acquired company does not compete with any product of the acquiring platform.

“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,” Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) chairman of the House antitrust panel, said in a statement. “They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work. Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure the wealthiest, most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it “strongly opposes” the legislation’s approach. “Bills that target specific companies, instead of focusing on business practices, are simply bad policy … and could be ruled unconstitutional,” the Chamber’s Neil Bradley said in a statement.

Reuters reports that Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who chairs the Senate antitrust subcommittee, said that work is underway on companion legislation to the House’s antitrust bills.

“I think you’ll see a number of bills introduced in the Senate,” Klobuchar said, but declined to elaborate.

This article was provided to OSAE by ASAE's Power of A and Inroads.