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The tech giants have repeatedly said they would welcome government regulation – if it is the right one, of course. But in the face of five antitrust bills that could undo what the House Judiciary Committee has called the “monopolistic power” of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook, Big Tech is highlighting its big lobbying weapons.
Apple CEO Tim Cook himself called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “to issue a warning” that “urgent” antitrust bills could cripple the iPhone, according to The New York Times, and that’s not all:
“Executives, lobbyists, and more than a dozen think tanks and advocacy groups that tech companies are pushing gathered to the Capitol offices, summoned lawmakers and their staff and sent written letters saying there would be dire consequences for the industry and the country if the ideas became law,” the New York Times wrote.
There is a growing sense that the current administration has a genuine interest in tech antitrust — a point perhaps made most clear when Biden chose prominent antitrust researcher and Amazon critic Lina Khan to lead the Federal Trade Commission. She was sworn in last week.
It’s not unusual for tech companies to get too deep in lobbying these days, as you now expect to be the most valuable company in the world, and we’ve seen their outsized influence overwhelm local voters and legislators before. Uber and Lyft raked in big profits after backing the most expensive measure in California history, using their own apps as an unfair advantage, and a controversial app store bill in Arizona mysteriously disappeared after tech companies stepped in. An Apple lobbyist has managed to scare California legislators off right — the 2019 repair bill, too.
Pelosi clearly didn’t have it, at least she wasn’t on the call. She backed out of Cook, according to Times sources.
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