Senators Introduce Bill Aimed at Controlling Big Tech and Restoring Competition

A dozen Republican and Democratic senators connected Oct. 18 introduced a measure aimed at stopping Big Tech from limiting user prime and restoring contention online.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) joined Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in introducing the bill, known arsenic the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.

It is cosponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

The measure would assistance to reconstruct contention online by “establishing commonsense rules of the roadworthy for ascendant integer platforms to forestall them from abusing their marketplace powerfulness to harm competition, online businesses and consumers and from reducing incentives to innovate,” according to a connection issued by Kennedy.

“Big Tech has a way grounds of unfairly limiting user choices and thwarting free-market competition. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act would assistance connection consumers much options astatine competitory prices from businesses online, which is what the American system is expected to bash best,” said Kennedy.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which is akin to a measure introduced earlier this twelvemonth by House Judiciary Subcommittee connected Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.), would marque it amerciable for ample tech companies to prosecute successful discriminatory behavior, including disadvantaging rivals.

Specifically, it would prohibit dominant Big Tech platforms like Amazon and Alphabet’s Google from abusing their powerfulness by favoring their ain products and services, disadvantaging rivals, oregon discriminating among businesses that usage their platforms successful a mode that harms contention connected the platform.

It would besides prohibit definite harmful conduct, specified arsenic misusing a business’s information to summation a competitive advantage, requiring a concern to bargain a ascendant platform’s goods oregon services for preferred placement connected its platform, preventing different business’s merchandise oregon work from interoperating with the ascendant level oregon different business, and banning them from biasing hunt results to favour the platform.

The measure would besides give antitrust enforcers the powerfulness to clasp ample tech companies accountable for amerciable behaviour by giving them a scope of tools to deter specified violations.

Last week, Klobuchar doubled down connected the request for specified a bill, stating a deficiency of accidental for smaller businesses owed to fierce competition.

“As ascendant integer platforms—some of the biggest companies our satellite has ever seen—increasingly springiness penchant to their ain products and services, we indispensable enactment policies successful spot to guarantee tiny businesses and entrepreneurs inactive person the accidental to win successful the integer marketplace,” Klobuchar said successful an Oct. 14 statement.

The Google app is seen connected a smartphone successful this illustration taken connected July 13, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

An illustration record photograph shows the logos of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft displayed connected a mobile telephone and a laptop screen. (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

However, the measure would person melodramatic implications for companies specified arsenic Google, Apple, and Amazon, which person been suspected of positioning their ain products supra their competitors successful bid to make higher profits.

The elephantine tech companies person denied immoderate wrongdoing.

Amazon said it fears the measure could harm consumers and tiny businesses that utilize its online store. It urged Congress to “consider these consequences” earlier rushing done the “ambiguously worded bill.”

Prior to the bill’s announcement, Brian Huseman, vice president of Amazon’s Public Policy, said successful a statement that, if it were to became law, the bill “would harm consumers and the much than 500,000 U.S. tiny and medium-sized businesses that merchantability successful the Amazon store, and it would enactment astatine hazard the much than 1 cardinal jobs created by those businesses.”

It would besides “jeopardize Amazon’s quality to run a marketplace for sellers, and it would importantly degrade the benefits of Amazon Prime that customers love,” Amazon said.

Google said that the measurement would marque it much hard for companies to connection escaped services—such arsenic Google’s ain maps and search—and would marque “those services little safe, little backstage and little secure.”

Meanwhile, Facebook, which said that it competes with a scope of societal media, including TikTok and Twitter, said antitrust laws should “not effort to dismantle the products and services radical beryllium on.”

The measure would not interruption up the companies oregon unit them to driblet services but bars immoderate atrocious behaviors that impact businesses that trust connected their platforms, said Stacy Mitchell with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance who said that she would similar a much assertive bill.

Klobuchar said companies including Spotify, Roku, Match Group, and DuckDuckGo person endorsed the bill.

The measure is 1 of respective that a bipartisan radical of 30 U.S. authorities attorneys wide are urging lawmakers to walk successful an effort to tighten antitrust laws aimed at Big Tech companies.

They see the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (“ACCESS”) Act, the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, and the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act.

Reuters contributed to this report.