House Judiciary Committee Considers Antitrust Legislation Aimed At Curbing Power Of Big Tech

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday began a debate and markup of a series of antitrust bills designed to curb the power of major tech platforms like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple, even if that means forcing the companies to divest some of their holdings.

The legislation is aimed at so-called “dominant platforms,” or those with at least $600 billion in revenue or market cap.

Among the bills are one, the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, that would prohibit large firms from owning a business that uses its platform “for the sale or provision of products or services” or that sells services as a condition of accessing the platform. That may force the breakup of companies, as they could not own businesses, like Amazon’s private label products, that pose a conflict of interest. Retailers on Amazon’s marketplace have accused the company of mining their data to undercut them.

In recent days the companies unleashed a flurry of statements, on their own and from industry trade groups, opposing the measures.

But the legislation has drawn rare bipartisan among certain Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee, including its chairman, Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and its ranking member, Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO). Cicilline led an investigation of tech platforms which was made public in October, concluding that the companies were using gatekeeper or monopoly power to stifle competition.

The bills include:

The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act: Prohibits acquisitions of competitive threats by dominant platforms, as well acquisitions that expand or entrench the market power of online platforms.

Facebook in particular has been taken to task for buying Instagram and other smaller rivals to maintain its social media dominance.

The Ending Platform Monopolies Act: Eliminates the ability of dominant platforms to leverage their control across multiple business lines to self-preference and disadvantage competitors in ways that undermine free and fair competition.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act: Prohibits discriminatory conduct by dominant platforms, including a ban on self-preferencing “and picking winners and losers online.”

The Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act: Updates filing fees for mergers for the first time in two decades to give the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission more money for antitrust enforcement. It raises the fees for mergers valued at over $1 billion and lowers them for deals of under $500,000.

The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act: Lowers barriers to entry and switching costs for businesses and consumers through interoperability and data portability requirements.

State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act: Ensures that state attorneys general who file cases under federal antitrust laws are able to remain in the court that they select, rather than having their cases moved to a court that is preferred by a defendant.

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