WASHINGTON, DC – Today, The Tech Oversight Project praised the re-introduction of the bipartisan American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA). The bill, led by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), would curb Big Tech’s most predatory gatekeeping practices that limit consumer choice, harm small businesses, and manipulate our entire economy.
“For years, Big Tech monopolies like Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon have manipulated the digital economy to limit choice, punish small businesses, and stack the deck in their favor. Poll after poll continues to show that the American people are sick of Big Tech’s predatory practices, and they want bipartisan antitrust enacted to hold tech monopolies accountable. Last Congress, Big Tech giants spent over quarter-of-a-billion dollars on backroom lobbying and chicken-little tv ads, and we cannot let their dark money and scare tactics undermine the will of the American people,” said Kyle Morse, Deputy Executive Director of The Tech Oversight Project. “We applaud Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Chuck Grassley for re-introducing the bipartisan American Innovation and Choice Online Act and look forward to working with them, the Biden Administration, civil society organizations, and small businesses to pass this bill and sign it into law.”
Why Do We Need AICOA?
The rise of modern tech giants was once heralded as an endless possibility fueled by Silicon Valley’s optimism about what the digital world could mean for our everyday lives. But the rose-colored hopefulness has since been replaced by corporate greed. Former tech darlings have exploited their dominant and near-ubiquitous platforms to crush competitors and bleed small businesses that rely on their services to survive. Far from embodying the free market or our national interests, companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Meta have abused their power to chill innovation, squeeze out the next generation of American entrepreneurs, and cozy up to autocratic rulers around the world.
Bottom Line: More competition means more options for consumers. It forces Big Tech platforms to be better, and that’s why we need safeguards to level the playing field to put users back in control to prevent Big Tech from continuing to:
- Leverage proprietary data to damage rivals and small businesses
- Prioritize their products over the ones you love
- Target children and teens with addictive products
- Copy products from sellers on their platforms
- Manipulate digital ad markets
- Sell and compromise our most personal data
- Harm marginalized communities
- Turbocharge hate and disinformation online
What does AICOA do?
The American Innovation and Choice Online Act will:
- Set clear, effective rules to protect competition and users doing business on dominant online platforms, including:
- Prohibiting dominant platforms from abusing their gatekeeper power by favoring their own products or services, disadvantaging rivals, or discriminating among businesses that use their platforms in a manner that would materially harm competition on the platform; and
- Prohibiting specific forms of conduct that are harmful to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers, but that do not have any pro-competitive benefit, including:
- Preventing another business’s product or service from interoperating with the dominant platform or another business;
- Requiring a business to buy a dominant platform’s goods or services for preferred placement on its platform;
- Misusing a business’s data to compete against them; and
- Biasing search results in favor of the dominant firm.
- Give antitrust enforcers strong, flexible tools to deter violations and hold dominant platforms accountable when they cross the line into illegal behavior, including significant civil penalties, authority to seek broad injunctions, emergency interim relief, and potential forfeiture of executive compensation.
- Prevent self-preferencing and discriminatory conduct by the most economically significant online platforms with large U.S. user bases which function as “critical trading partners” for online businesses. For such platforms, the rules target harmful conduct, allowing the platforms to innovate, do business, and engage in pro-consumer conduct, including protecting user privacy and safety, preventing unlawful behavior, and maintaining a secure online experience for users.
Background:
- Last Congress, AICOA passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by an overwhelming 16-6 margin – with nearly 3 in 4 members of committee members supporting, and AICOA also passed out of the House Judiciary Committee.
- In addition to AICOA, other bipartisan antitrust bills, including the Open App Markets Act and the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act also passed out of Committee.
- On the House side, the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act passed out of committee and the full House of Representatives by a wide bipartisan 242-184 margin. Notably, none of the House Democrats who voted against the bill were in the 20% of the most competitive districts in the country.
- Big Tech monopolies like Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon, alongside their tech front groups, spent over $260 million on lobbying and TV ads attacking the bills and Democratic lawmakers.
- Throughout 2022, The Tech Oversight Project published national, battleground, and demographic polling data showing that there was widespread support for AICOA, broad bipartisan antitrust reform, and holding Big Tech accountable.