U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced legislation designed to make it more difficult for dominant online platforms to make acquisitions that hurt competition and eliminate consumer choice.
The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act (S. 3197) will halt further harmful consolidation by giving antitrust enforcers more authority to stop acquisitions by dominant platforms that primarily serve to kill competitive threats or enhance their monopoly power. This would include acquisitions of direct competitors, or potential competitors, that reinforce or expand a platform’s market position or dominance. It would also shift the burden in merger enforcement to dominant platforms to demonstrate the merger is not anticompetitive. It would permit dominant platforms to make acquisitions that do not threaten competition or enhance monopoly power.
“Competition is critical to protecting workers and consumers and spurring innovation. But today, we’re increasingly seeing companies choose to buy their rivals rather than compete,” Klobuchar, chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, said. “This bipartisan legislation will put an end to those anticompetitive acquisitions by making it more difficult for dominant digital platforms to eliminate their competitors and enhance the platform’s market power. It’s past time to address our nation’s monopoly problem and modernize our antitrust laws for the digital economy.”
A similar bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), David Cicilline (D-RI), and Ken Buck (R-CO).
“Big tech firms have bought up rivals to crush their competition, expand their monopolistic market share, and to harm working Americans. That’s bad for America. Under this bill, the largest tech monopolies will have the burden of proving that further acquisitions are lawful and good for the American people,” Cotton said.
The bill has been embraced by several organizations, including Open Markets, Public Citizen, Consumer Reports, Internet Accountability Project, and the American Principles Project, to name a few.
“For innovation to thrive in our modern economy, start-ups and small businesses must be able to compete directly with industry giants. We must also ensure that consumers can choose what online platform to patronize without one or two companies entrenching the entire market and removing all choice. The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act will help make a stronger online economy to benefit all Americans,” Jeffries said.