"House lawmakers proposed a raft of bipartisan legislation aimed at reining in the country's biggest tech companies, including a bill that seeks to make Amazon.com Inc. and other large corporations effectively split in two or shed their private-label products.
The bills, announced Friday, amount to the biggest congressional broadside yet on a handful of technology companies -- including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. as well as Amazon -- whose size and power have drawn growing scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe.
If the bills become law -- a prospect that faces significant hurdles -- they could substantially alter the most richly valued companies in America and reshape an industry that has extended its impact into nearly every facet of work and life.
One of the measures, titled the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, seeks to require structural separation of Amazon and other big technology companies to break up their businesses. It would make it unlawful for an online platform to own a business that "utilizes the covered platform for the sale or provision of products or services" or that sells services as a condition for access to the platform. The platform company also couldn't own businesses that have conflicts of interest, such as by creating the "incentive and ability" for the platform to advantage its own products over competitors.
A separate bill takes a different approach, barring platforms from conduct that "advantages the covered platform operator's own products, services, or lines of business over those of another business user," or that excludes or disadvantages other businesses.
The proposed legislation would need to be passed by the Democratic-controlled House as well as the Senate, where it would likely also need substantial Republican support. Each of the bills has both Republicans and Democrats signed onto it, with more expected to join, congressional aides said.
"Unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy," said Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.), the top Democrat on the House Antitrust Subcommittee. "They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work."
Rep. Ken Buck (R., Colo.), the panel's top Republican, said he supports the bill because it "breaks up Big Tech's monopoly power to control what Americans see and say online, and fosters an online market that encourages innovation."
The four companies didn't comment Friday. All have defended their competitive practices and said that they operate to benefit customers.
Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, whose members include Facebook, Amazon and Google, said the bills, "Writing regulations for a handful of businesses will skew competition and leave consumers worse off."
Critics of the technology giants praised the bills. Roku Inc., said lawmakers for took "a crucial step toward curbing the predatory and anticompetitive behaviors of some of the country's most powerful companies." [1]
Interestingly, China is also right now concerned about the negative effects of its major technology firms on competition and innovation. Apparently, big technology businesses around the world are enticed by monopoly practices and are now in trouble for that.
1. Bills Aim To Split Amazon, Curb Tech Giants --- Five bipartisan House proposals seek to lessen the power of tech's biggest players
Mattioli, Dana; Ryan, Tracy. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]12 June 2021: A.1.
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