House Antitrust Bows Anti-Big Tech Bills

House Antitrust Subcommittee members bowed five bills Friday to address alleged abuse of market power by Google, Facebook, Amazon and other major tech companies the subpanel identified in an October report (see 2010060062). Each measure had GOP lead co-sponsors.

House Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., led the American Choice and Innovation Online Act, which would ban self-preferencing and other discriminatory conduct by major platforms designated by DOJ and the FTC. Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., led the Platform Competition and Opportunity Act, which would prohibit identified platforms from making deals that are a threat to competition or expand the market power of online platforms. Antitrust Vice Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., led the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which would end identified platforms’ ability to own or otherwise control interest in some other lines of business.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., led a companion to the Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (Access) Act, which would ease barriers to entry and switching costs for businesses and consumers through interoperability and data portability requirements (see 2102250059). Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., led a House companion of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act (S-228), which would change fees for megadeals. The Senate included the text of S-228 in the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260) passed last week (see 2106080074).

The bills “will restore competition online and level the playing field,” Cicilline said. “Our actions today to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement will ensure that our laws can finally and effectively meet the challenges of our modern economy.” The legislation “breaks up Big Tech’s monopoly power to control what Americans see and say online, and fosters an online market that encourages innovation,” said ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ACT|The App Association and Computer and Communications Industry Association opposed the bills; Public Knowledge supported them.

“Bills that target specific companies, instead of focusing on business practices, are simply bad policy and are fundamentally unfair and could be ruled unconstitutional,” said U.S. Chamber Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley in a statement. “Efforts made by these bills to use antitrust law to supplant the role of regulation are equally misguided.” As “drafted this legislation does nothing to lower competitive barriers for new entrants and small businesses and instead rewards the top one percent of the app economy,” said ACT President Morgan Reed.

"Rather than offer broad antitrust reform applicable across the U.S. economy, these proposed regulations focus upon a few companies whose competing products and services are very popular with consumers," said CCIA President Matt Schruers. "It’s perplexing that the Committee would not prioritize broad reform." The group earlier urged the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the bills before any markup.

“We are losing the promise of the internet as powerful gatekeepers control access to increasingly wider swaths of online activity,” said PK Competition Policy Director Charlotte Slaiman. “Under this legislation, the FTC and DOJ will be equipped with the most effective tools yet to break open the gates.”