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US lawmakers unveiled a broad antitrust agenda on Friday, aiming to curb the competitive power of giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google with five bipartisan bills that would mark the most meaningful rewrite of decades-old antitrust laws. As a result of more than a year of investigation into competition in the digital market, the bills target what lawmakers call “the unregulated power of big tech companies.”
The bills target the four tech giants, who collectively influence nearly every aspect of online life, as well as the broader industry. If eventually passed into law, the bills would make it easier for the government to break up dominant companies, prevent them from eliminating competition through preemptive acquisitions and strip them of doing different businesses with conflicts of interest.
Representative David N. Cecilline, a Rhode Island Democrat and chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, said the list of bills would “reward the playing field” and ensure tech companies adhere to the same rules.
“Currently, unregulated technology monopolies have significant power over our economy,” Cecline said in a press release. “They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put people out of business.”
Facebook and Google declined to comment. Apple and Amazon did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The enormous market power of these companies, which together account for more than $6 trillion in market value, has confounded the basic principles that have guided antitrust legislation in the United States for a generation. Lawmakers have become increasingly concerned about the industry’s behavior and have threatened to address it. In July, the CEOs of the four companies were taken before the Cisline Committee for a grueling six-hour hearing, an unprecedented public questioning of the big tech leaders’ most visible.
Silicon Valley proponents argue that the scale of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google has provided consumers with unprecedented innovation and comprehensive technological benefits, often at a lower cost. Critics of big tech companies counter that the industry’s extraordinary market power is hurting workers, suppressing smaller competitors, and costing consumers in ways other than money.
According to lawmakers, bills on the legislative agenda on Friday would:
Banning discrimination by dominant platforms – such as the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or all Amazon marketplaces – preventing them from exercising their own self-preference or “picking winners and losers online”. Preventing acquisitions designed to crush competitive threats, or those that would expand or enhance the market power of online platforms. Prevent dominant platforms from taking advantage of their control across multiple business types to give themselves an unfair advantage and unfavorable competition, and encourage more competition online by lowering barriers to entry and lowering costs for businesses and consumers when they want to switch to a new provider. Updated filing fees for mergers, the first increase in two decades, providing funds for both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to pursue needed antitrust action.
The United States is not alone in reining in the powers of tech companies. Three years ago, the European Union enacted sweeping laws called the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which is widely seen as the global gold standard for privacy. Australia requires technology companies to pay for news content linked to their sites. China and India are also going after technology companies.
New laws escalate the battle that has been brewing between Silicon Valley and Washington for years.
The four tech giants face major antitrust battles. Google is the target of three major antitrust lawsuits, including a landmark case brought by the US Department of Justice, and another complaint from a bipartisan coalition of states. Facebook is facing lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and a group of state attorneys general. Amazon has been sued by a Washington, D.C. attorney, in order to fix prices. Apple and Google have been sued by the maker of the popular game Fortnite over their App Store policies.
Cecline led the charge at home. The July hearing was the culmination of a more than year-long investigation by its subcommittee into the market dominance of the tech giants. During that time, the subcommittee collected more than 1.3 million documents from technology companies, their competitors, and antitrust agencies. After the hearing, the subcommittee released a 449-page report accusing the four companies of “abuse of monopoly power.”
The scale of the companies is staggering.
Facebook is the largest social network in the world, with a user base roughly equal to the two most populous countries – China and India – combined. Amazon controls 38% of online sales in the US, while Walmart, its closest competitor, has only 6%. (Amazon also collects data on other retailers using its giant platform.) Apple’s App Store is a powerful portal for software developers to find an audience with the company’s huge iPhone and iPad customer base. Google handles about 90% of all web searches globally.
Robert Wiseman, president of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said the legislative package is a “big step” toward holding dominant tech companies accountable for abuses of their unsupervised power. “Big tech companies must see this for what it is: Congress is sending a clear message that the party is finally over for them,” he said in a statement.
Smaller competitors praised the move.
Roku, which is currently locked in a standoff with Google over a deal to continue hosting the YouTube TV app on streaming devices, has described the billing as a crucial step to curb predatory behaviour. “Roku has first-hand experience competing with and interacting with these monopolists,” the company said in a statement. “We have seen how they flagrantly disregard antitrust laws and harm consumers by taking advantage of their dominance in one area of business to stifle competition in another.”
Spotify, which has been an outspoken critic of Apple’s actions on its App Store, called the proposals a “clear sign that momentum has shifted” after “anticompetitive practices have gone unchecked for too long, stifling competition and threatening innovation”.
However, tech industry supporters and representatives have warned that the bills could harm America’s global economic leadership and impede consumers’ access to free digital services.
“The House bills would put the government in charge of industrial regulation,” Matthew Schroers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association at the tech trade group, said in a statement. “They are ignoring the principles that govern the American market economy and will stop successful technology companies from providing consumers with products and services that improve their lives.”
A statement earlier today by Representative Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican and senior member of the committee, noted that the industry’s stance would find little sympathy in Washington.
“Big tech companies have abused their market dominance to crush competitors, censor speech, and control how we see and understand the world,” Buck said. “Doing nothing is not an option, we must act now.”
Richard Neva contributed to this article.
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