Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook targeted by new Pack Antitrust bills

U.S. lawmakers released a broader no-confidence agenda on Friday aimed at restricting the competing power of giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google with five bipartisan bills that would mark the most meaningful redesign of no-confidence laws for decades. As a result of more than a year of competitive investigation in the digital marketplace, Bills lawmakers are targeting what Big Dec calls “unregulated power”.

These bills target four technological titans that collectively affect every aspect of online life and the wider industry. If eventually passed into law, it will make it easier for governments to break up dominating companies, prevent them from seizing competition through pre-emptive acquisitions and prevent the use of different industries with conflicts of interest.

Rhode Island Democrats and House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David N. Cecil said the bills would “equalize the sports sector” and ensure that technology companies were subject to the same rules.

“Right now, uncontrolled technological monopolies have more power over our economy,” Cecil said in a statement. “They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers and fire everyone.”

Facebook and Google declined to comment. Apple and Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

The enormous market power of these companies, which represent more than $ 6 trillion in market value, has confused the basic principles of guiding lawlessness in the United States for a generation. Lawmakers are increasingly concerned with the behavior of the industry and are threatening to address it. In July, the CEOs of the four companies were dragged before a panel in Sicily Six-hour trial, An unprecedented public hearing of Big Tech’s most visible leaders.

Proponents of Silicon Valley have found that the size of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google has provided consumers with unprecedented innovation and technological benefits, often at low cost. Critics of Big Tech say the industry’s extraordinary market power affects workers, suppresses petty competitors and costs consumers in ways other than money.

According to legislators, the bills on the agenda of the legislature on Friday are:

• Prevent discrimination by dominant sites such as Apple’s App Store, Google Play Store, or Amazon’s All Market – Prevents the use of self-selection or “selecting winners and losers online.”
• Prohibit acquisitions designed to prevent competitive threats, or expand or promote the market power of online sites.
• Control dominant sites from improving their control over multiple business types in order to present themselves to unfair pros and cons competitors.
• Encourage more online competition by reducing entry barriers and reducing costs for businesses and consumers when switching to a new provider.
• The renewal of filing fees for mergers, the first increase in two decades, provides funding for both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to pursue the necessary hopeless measures.

The United States is not alone in controlling the powers of technology companies. Three years ago, the European Union passed comprehensive laws Public Data Protection Regulation, Or GDPR, are widely regarded as the global gold standard for privacy. Australia needed Technology companies pay for news content Linked to their sites. China and India have gone after technology companies.

The new bills add to the years-long tussle between Silicon Valley and Washington.

All four of the tech companies are facing major hopeless wars. Google is the target of three major lawsuits, one of which was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the other by a bipartisan coalition. Facebook is facing lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and the state Attorney General’s Board. Washington, D.C.’s attorney has sued Amazon for setting the price. Apple and Google have sued the maker of the popular App Fortnight leader for their App Store policies.

Led the charge in the Council of Sicily. The July inquiry was the culmination of more than a year of inquiries by his subcommittee on the market dominance of the technical inquiry. During that time, the subcommittee collected more than 1.3 million documents from technology companies, their competitors, and trusted enforcement agencies. Following the investigation, the subcommittee Published a 449 page report All four companies were accused of “abuse of monopoly power”.

The sizes of companies will stumble.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with one user platform on par with the two most populous countries in the world, China and India. Amazon controls 38% US Online Sales, Its nearest competitor Walmart is 6% ashamed. (Amazon also collects data from other retailers using its large site.) The Apple App Store is a powerful gateway for software developers to find visitors with the company’s largest iPhone and iPad customer base. Google enables 90% of all web searches worldwide.

Robert Weissman, chairman of the Public Citizens’ Advocacy Committee, said the legislative package was a “huge step” to take responsibility for abusing the unfettered power of dominant technology companies. “Big Tech should see this: Congress is sending a clear message to them that the party is over,” he said in a statement.

Smaller competitors praised the move.

Roku, who is currently in conflict with Google over an agreement to continue hosting the YouTube TV app on its streaming devices, has filed a lawsuit. An important step in preventing predatory behavior. “Roku has the first experience in competing and interacting against these monopolies,” the company said in a statement. “We ‘ve seen how they openly ignore hopeless laws and harm consumers, by controlling their dominance in one business over competition in another.”

Spotify, which has been critical of Apple’s actions in its App Store, called the proposals “a clear sign of rapid change”, saying “counter-competitive practices have not been checked for a long time, preventing competition and threatening innovation.”

However, supporters and representatives of the technology sector warned that the bills could affect the US economic leadership of the world and block consumers’ access to free digital services.

“House bills place the government in charge of the industry,” said Matthew Schroer, president of the Computer and Communication Industry Association of the Technology Business Council. “They ignore the policies that govern the US market economy and prevent successful technology companies from delivering products and services that improve their lives to consumers.”

In a statement a day earlier, Colorado Republican President Ken Buck, a member of the panel’s rankings, suggested that the industry’s position would see little sympathy in Washington.

“Big Tech has abused its dominance in the marketplace, to suppress and censor competitors and to control how we view and understand the world,” Buck said. “Doing nothing is not an option. We must act now.”

– Richard Niva contributed to this article.

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