WASHINGTON, United States — US lawmakers Wednesday
launched a contentious debate on legislation aimed at curbing the power of
Big Tech firms with a sweeping reform of antitrust laws.
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House Judiciary Committee members began what was expected to
be lengthy debate preceding a vote on five bills with potentially massive
implications for large online platforms and consumers who use them.
The legislation could force an overhaul of the business
practices of Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, or potentially lead to a
breakup of the dominant tech giants. But critics argue the measures could have
unintended consequences that would hurt consumers and some of the most popular
online services.
Representative David Cicilline, who headed a 16-month
investigation that led to the legislation, said the bills are aimed at
restoring competition in markets stymied by monopolies.
"The digital marketplace suffers from a lack of
competition. Many digital markets are defined by monopolies or duopoly
control," Cicilline said as the hearing opened.
"Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are gatekeepers to
the online economy. They bury or by rivals and abuse their monopoly power
conduct that is harmful to consumers, competition, innovation and our
democracy."
The bills would restrict how online platforms operate, notably
whether tech giants operating them could favor their own products or
services.
The measures would also limit mergers or acquisitions by Big
Tech firms aimed at limiting competition, and make it easier for users to try
new services by requiring data "portability" and
"interoperability."
The fate of the bills remained unclear, with some
Republicans and moderate Democrats expressing concerns despite bipartisan
support.
Republican Representative Ken Buck, a supporter of the
initiative, said the legislation "represents a scalpel, not a chainsaw, to
deal with the most important aspects of antitrust reform," in dealing with
"these monopolists (who) routinely use their gatekeeper power to crush
competitors, harm innovation and destroy the free market."
But Republican Jim Jordan criticized the effort, renewing
his argument that Big Tech firms suppress conservative voices.
"These bills don't fix that problem — they make
it worse," Jordan said. "They don't break up Big Tech. They don't
stop censorship."
Pushback from industry
Tech firms and others warned of negative consequences for
popular services people rely on, potentially forcing Apple to remove its
messaging apps from the iPhone or Google to stop displaying results from
YouTube or Maps.
Apple released a report arguing that one likely impact —
opening up the iPhone to apps from outside platforms — could create security
and privacy risks for users.
Forcing Apple to allow "sideloading" of apps would
mean "malicious actors would take advantage of the opportunity by devoting
more resources to develop sophisticated attacks targeting iOS users," the
report said.
Amazon vice president Brian Huseman warned of
"significant negative effects" both for sellers and consumers using
the e-commerce platform, and reduced price competition.
"It will be much harder for these third-party sellers
to create awareness for their business," Huseman said.
"Removing the selection of these sellers from Amazon's
store would also create less price competition for products, and likely end up
increasing prices for consumers. The committee is moving unnecessarily fast in
pushing these bills forward."
The measures may also impact Microsoft, which has not been
the focus of the House antitrust investigation but which links services such as
Teams messaging and Bing search to its Windows platform, and possibly other
firms.
Analyst Daniel Ives at Wedbush Securities said the chances
of passage of a major antitrust overhaul were slim in the current political
situation, and that any enforcement action would be limited in the absence of
new legislation.
As a result, share prices of the major tech firms have seen
little movement.
"We believe this antitrust momentum hits a brick wall
and for now is more a headline risk that investors are taking in stride,"
he said.
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