Bill to Restore Online Competition Reintroduced
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) late Thursday reintroduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), bipartisan legislation that would establish commonsense rules of the road for dominant digital platforms to prevent them from abusing their market power to harm competition, online businesses, and consumers. Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“Big Tech’s unchecked growth and dominance have led to outrageous abuses of power that harm consumers, workers, small businesses, and innovation. That unchecked power must end.
“This bipartisan bill is a huge step toward holding abusive and dominant Big Tech companies accountable and stopping them from abusing their monopoly power in nearly every aspect of their business. Covered platforms include Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and TikTok. AICOA would prohibit a variety of ways they put a thumb on the scale in favor of their own products, instead of showing consumers the best options. The bill would finally give smaller and medium-sized businesses that use Big Tech platforms the right to be treated fairly.
“This bill came extremely close to passing in the last Congress. This Congress should get it done.”