Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google may be forced to overhaul their business practices. On Friday, a bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives proposed four Antitrust Bills to control tech giants’ power.
These five bills will make it more difficult for dominant platforms to complete mergers. Also, to prohibit them from owning companies with apparent conflicts of interest will be complex as well. This legislation represents the most comprehensive effort to reform the century-old antitrust law in decades.
These bills need the support of the Judiciary Committee to enter the House of Representatives. They also need approval from the Senate before the president signs it into law.
A long-term investigation of the four companies was completed last year by the Antitrust Subcommittee of the House of Representatives Judiciary. These measures are from the previous year.
The panel found that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google hold Monopoly power. As a result, they believe that the amendment of the anti-monopoly law would respond to the unique challenges of competition in the digital market.
Generally, the Democrats and Republicans disagree on some solutions. However, on this issue, they mostly agreed with that competition damage. They both admit reforms are necessary to revitalize the market.
The introduction of two new bills on Friday may complicate things for Amazon and Apple
They need to control markets and operate their products or applications. These markets are related to other sellers or developers who rely on their services.
Drafts of these Antitrust bills have already aroused opposition from science and technology funding groups.
“Adopting a European regulatory model will make it more difficult for American technology companies to innovate and compete domestically and globally,” said Jeffrey Mann, president and founder of the Center for International Law and Economics.
According to these proposals, Kovacevich believes that Amazon will not provide Prime with free shipping for specific products. Also, Google will not provide users with the most popular business results in their area because of the prohibition of discrimination on their platform.
He also mentioned that Apple might not be able to pre-install its “Find My” application on its devices to help users find lost items. In addition, Kovacevich believes that Facebook cannot allow easy cross-posting to Instagram due to conflicts of interest and non-discrimination clauses.
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