Cicilline would reduce the ability of big tech companies to use their platforms to promote their own goods ahead of those of competitors — a rule that could slam Apple and Google’s Android software over their app-store policies, and Amazon over its massive third-party marketplace. .
The Judiciary Committee will need to vote on the bills before they make their way to the House for approval and then the Senate.The tech giants did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday, but reports that the bills were coming had already spurred pushback“Adopting the European regulatory model would make it harder for American tech companies to innovate and compete both here and globally,†Geoffrey Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law & Economics told CNBC, which added that the group has received funding from Google in the past. In a Medium post published earlier this week, Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of Chamber of Progress, an advocacy group backed by the five tech giants, argued that consumers would miss out on “conveniences” such as Amazon Prime free shipping and cross posting between Facebook and Instagram, under those proposalsThe antitrust reforms follow a 16-month long investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittee on anticompetitive issues into the four tech giants that was completed last yearAt the time, the investigation’s 450-page report found that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google hold monopoly power and that antitrust laws should be revised to better deal with today’s digital media landscapeThe report said that major changes for big tech companies may have to spin off or separate parts of their businesses or make them harder to buy smaller companies