Technology giants that may be spun off due to a series of new antitrust laws, publicly oppose these measures. Lawmakers will debate these measures on Wednesday.
Amazon and Google issued statements on Tuesday against these bills. Apple and Facebook are also the targets of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the digital market. However, they have not issued their statements yet.
Industry groups backed by technology companies also oppose the legislation. They believe it will prevent these companies from operating popular consumer services and ultimately harm small businesses and entrepreneurs.
There are six bills for review on the schedule for Wednesday. Legislators will discuss these proposals and any amendments before deciding whether to proceed. It will have a profound impact on the technology industry and may even surpass it.
Amazon and Google are calling on the Judiciary Committee to break the legislation
Google’s vice president of government affairs and public policy, Mark Isakowitz, does not oppose the new regulations. However, he warned that the bill on the table would “undermine” popular consumer services.
Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, also made an announcement. He said that Amazon consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises selling on the platform would be “significantly negatively affected.” However, he added that Amazon is still reviewing these bills.
According to him, more than half a million American small and medium-sized enterprises make a living through the Amazon market. However, it will be more difficult for these third-party sellers to create visibility for their business without access to Amazon’s customers and obtain comparable income.
Two of these bills may require structural changes or splits into several platforms. In addition, they prohibit the ownership and operation of business lines that have conflicts of interest and provide for anti-discriminatory business practices.
Others will transfer the burden of proof for the combined case to the leading platform. Another bill in the package will allow users to carry data with them through mandatory services. Finally, it will make it easier for consumers to switch platforms.
These bills will specifically apply to platforms with a market value of more than $600 billion and 50 million monthly active U.S.
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