~ MamakTalk ~: New Antitrust Bills Target Apple, Google, And Other Big Tech Companies

2021年6月15日星期二

New Antitrust Bills Target Apple, Google, And Other Big Tech Companies

Sundar Pichai House Judicial Committee Hearing Dec 11 2018 1

There are now five new antitrust bills targeting Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. This news comes from Engadget. According to them, the House introduced these five new bills on June 11. The point of the new bills will be to step up antitrust enforcement against tech giants.

By limiting the companies’ ability to acquire new business easily, it will make the companies change how they treat their services. This will hopefully make it where companies will share their services with their competitors.

Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon have so much power in the tech industry that they have become almost untouchable. In addition, the companies all have their own services and advantages which makes it hard for any competitors to truly threaten them.

Here is what Rep. Pramila Jayapal had to say on the matter:

“From Amazon and Facebook to Google and Apple, it is clear that these unregulated tech giants have become too big to care and too powerful to ever put people over profit. By reasserting the power of Congress, our landmark bipartisan bills rein in anti-competitive behavior, prevent monopolistic practices, and restore fairness and competition while finally leveling the playing field and allowing innovation to thrive.”

The five bills have a lot in them that will go toward corralling the power of these tech behemoths. For example, there is the American Choice and Innovation Act which will help curb the advantages different tech platforms have over the competition.

New antitrust bills target Apple, Google, and other big tech companies

Rep David Cicilline, said that the bill would prevent Amazon “from manipulating their marketplaces to promote their own products.” This is just one example, but Apple will also be affected by this. Competition in the market is always a good thing, but the powerhouses are able to stymie their competitors with certain practices.

There is also the Ending Platform Monopolies Act. This will keep big tech companies from “selling products in marketplaces they control”. Again this is another attempt to keep competition fair. This Act was co-authored by Rep. Jayapal.

The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act bill prevent “dominant platforms” from acquiring companies that represent “competitive threats.” This will be a major one.

Many times we see the big tech companies buy out smaller companies. In doing so, a lot of times the acquisition is done to effectively end the smaller company.

The Augmenting Compatibility and Competition Enabling Service Switching Act of 2021 (ACCESS) will make it easier to quit social media. Not only will it make it easier to quit social media, but users can easily take their data with them.

Lastly, there is the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2021. This will help the FTC and DOJ raise money for antitrust enforcement. They will be doing this by increasing fees companies must pay when requesting governmental approval for acquisitions.

This last one could make companies reconsider their acquisitions. If a company wants to go on an acquisition spree, they will have to pay for each one. This could easily hurt their bottom lines.

These new bills will hopefully help make the technology market more competitive. Recently, there have been new surrounding companies being accused of monopolistic practices. In fact, both Google and Apple have found themselves in the crosshairs.

Only time will tell if these five new antitrust bills will work.

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