Everything you need to know about tech antitrust bills

Are you curious about the lawmakers’ attempt to bring the power of Big Tech (Google, Facebook, Apple, as well as Amazon) under control? Then, check out tech antitrust bills. This post provides everything you need to know about these bills.

What are tech antitrust bills?

Tech antitrust bills refer to some relevant legislation. They are: 

• The American Innovation and Choice Online (AICO) Act bans “discriminatory conduct” by dominant companies in the IT industry in America. In other words, these firms would not be allowed to give their own goods an inclination over competitors’ goods anymore. Besides, it would ban other discriminatory behaviors like separating a rival from services.
• The Platform Competition and Opportunity (PCO) Act is also one of the tech antitrust bills. It would prohibit the utilization of acquisitions for market power expansion. Instead of the obligation of the government to prove the harmfulness of a merger, this legislation would make tech giants obligable for proving acquisitions are in line with laws and regulations.
• The Ending Platform Monopolies (EPM) Act would bring the power of tech giants under control. They should not be entirely free to utilize their power over many kinds of businesses to gain an exclusive competitive advantage. This legislation focuses on platforms with about 50M active American users per month as well as market capitalizations of over 600B dollars running or owning another business line that causes COI (conflict of interest). For example, the COI would be an incentive to place in a discouraging position in relation to a potential rival. 
• The Augmenting Compatibility & Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) legislation is also one of the tech antitrust bills. Thanks to it, people would have a less hard time getting their personal information between technology platforms. 
• The Merger Filing Fee Modernization (MFFM) legislation would increase filing fees to make sure that the government can afford to pursue actions related to tech antitrust bills. The nation’s top antitrust regulators, the DOJ (Department of Justice), as well as the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) will get that fund.

What would occur if tech antitrust bill legislation passed?

The tech antitrust bills would allow the U.S government to bring the power of tech giants under control. Besides, they could keep these firms from putting a sudden end to competition by means of preemptive acquisitions. Furthermore, it is able to restrain the Big Tech from getting involved in various businesses that can beat smaller rivals by utilizing their market power. 

For example, the EPM legislation would not allow Amazon, now running one main eCommerce marketplace, to offer its own branded goods for sale. Besides, this implies that Google would not be able to shed light on YouTube videos on its bots/ spiders. Another example is that the AICO legislation would be able to require Apple to make its app store more accessible.

In conclusion, we hope that you can have a better picture of tech antitrust bills. For further help, feel free to reach us.