Documents: House Antitrust Subcommittee proposes five bills to rein in big tech

The House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, chaired by David N. Cicilline (RI-01) today announced five proposed bills to "restore competition to digital marketplace and rein in largest tech platforms."

“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy. They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work," said Chairman Cicilline in a statement.

“Big Tech has abused its dominance in the marketplace to crush competitors, censor speech, and control how we see and understand the world,” said the lead Republican on the Committee, Ranking Member Ken Buck (CO-04).

Here are the bills:

• The “American Innovation and Choice Online Act” to "prohibit discriminatory conduct by dominant platforms, including a ban on self-preferencing and picking winners and losers online," sponsored by Chairman Cicilline and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden (TX-05).

• The “Platform Competition and Opportunity Act” to prohibit "acquisitions of competitive threats by dominant platforms, as well acquisitions that expand or entrench the market power of online platforms," sponsored by U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) and co-sponsored by Ranking Member Buck.

• The “Ending Platform Monopolies Act” to eliminate "the ability of dominant platforms to leverage their control over across multiple business lines to self-preference and disadvantage competitors in ways that undermine free and fair competition," sponsored by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden (TX-05).

• The “Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act” to "promotes competition online by lowering barriers to entry and switching costs for businesses and consumers through interoperability and data portability requirements," sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Burgess Owens (UT-04).

• The “Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act”, which "updates filing fees for mergers for the first time in two decades to ensure that Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have the resources they need to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws," sponsored by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (CO-02) and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz (IN-05).