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In a two-day voting for antitrust bills aimed at curtailing the power of Big Tech, the U.S. House Of Representatives Judiciary Committee approves six bills on Thursday.

Background

The Committee was formed in June 2019, wherein they considered various aspects including the dominance of the BigTech players, existing laws on competition, the sufficiency of existing laws to curtail anti-competitive practices, etc.

The preliminary investigation into various facets of antitrust and BigTech was collated in form of a 450-page report, first released in October 2020. The report was formally approved in April 2021.

The report contained the blueprint of the legislations to curb the monopoly powers of the BigTech companies.

The report highlighted various instances of alleged abuse of power by the companies and the need to amend antitrust laws to foster competition online.  During the official approval of the report, representative David Cicilline stated that "Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook each hold monopoly power over significant sectors of our economy. This monopoly moment must end,"

The report was approved by a 24-17 vote, along the party lines, as reported by Reuters.[1]

Based on the report and a sixteen-month-long investigation of the House Judiciary Committee, six bills were introduced for discussion. The tech investigation was a bipartisan effort.

On Thursday, June 24, 2021, the House Judiciary Committee approved six bills aimed at curbing the monopolistic practices of BigTech.

What are the six legislations?

1. American Innovation and Choice Online Act[2]

The bill seeks to stop the dominant platforms from promoting their own products/services as a preference and hence stop the discrimination faced by the rivals.

2.  Platform Competition and Opportunity Act[3]

Acquisition of potential competition was addressed by this particular legislation. In order to break competition acquiring competitors in the market, by BigTech is a prominent practice. This bill seeks to stop the firms from using acquisitions as a strategy for neutralizing potential threats. 

3. Ending Platform Monopolies Act[4]

Many platforms like Amazon, use the platform to sell their products. The legislation seeks to ban such practice of operating or owning a marketplace simultaneously. Such practices represent a conflict of interest and give an unfair advantage to the platforms. Essentially the bill requires platforms to choose between competing on the platform or running a platform. This bill was passed by a narrow vote of 21-20. The bill is also known as the ‘Break ‘Em up’ legislation and is one of the most stringent stands against monopolies.

4. Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act [5]

The legislation looks at the provisions making it easier for the users to move their data, during switching to a competitor’s platform. It also seeks to develop interoperability between the dominant platforms as well as the third-party platforms.

5. Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act[6]

In two decades, the fees regarding larger mergers have been updated. The fees have been increased which in turn also provides more funds to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice to deal with antitrust disputes.

6. State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act

State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act, deals with the issue of jurisdiction. It allows the state attorneys to proceed with litigations about antitrust cases in their respective home states.

Way forward

With the votes from the committee, the bills would have to gain passage in the House and then be approved by the Senate.

The Wall Street Journal reported the following statement by the White House official,

“The president is encouraged by the bipartisan work to address problems created by big tech platforms.” He further added that “We hope the legislative process continues to move forward on these bipartisan proposals, and we look forward to working with Congress to continue developing these ideas.”

Although the Joe Biden government has shown support to the said efforts to curb the monopoly existence of the BigTech companies, the battle around the legislations, before the bills become law would become clearer as the process unfolds.