Amazon and Alphabet are leading what promises to be the most intense corporate America’s political campaign in recent history, as part of a last-ditch effort to stop Congress from passing laws to limit their bargaining power.
The companies are targeting a “self-preference”bill that would prevent large online platforms from using their dominance in one area to give other products an unfair advantage – Alphabet, for example, uses its Google search engine to promote its travel or shopping products.
If passed, the bill is likely to jump-start a raft of laws aimed at strengthening America’s competition rules in what could be the biggest update to the country’s antitrust rules in a generation.
“This is one of the most significant campaigns we’ve had in recent years,”said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which coordinated the technology industry’s response to the bill. “That’s because there has never been such a serious proposal to undermine US competitiveness and put US users at risk.”
Supporters on the other side see lobbying as the goal of reinforcing the dominance of large technology groups. “Internet giants are in Yolo mode [you only live once] — they are desperate and doing everything they can to change the trajectory,” said Luther Lowe, senior vice president of public policy at Yelp, who lobbied for the bill.
“These companies are throwing spaghetti at the wall with every conceivable argument they can find,” said one congressional aide who helped promote the bill.
In recent years, Democrats and Republicans have found a rare common ground in their efforts to rein in the corporate power of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies. To this end, members of Congress have proposed a series of legislation, including measures to limit the ability of large technology companies to buy smaller competitors and prevent them from acting as both buyers and sellers in the lucrative digital advertising market.
But it’s the “self-preference”bill, known as the “American Internet Innovation and Choice Act,”that the industry is targeting, given its broad congressional support and possible implications for the industry.
The bill, which was championed in the Senate by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and in the House of Representatives by fellow party member David Cichillin, specifically targets Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook’s parent company Meta. He passed through committees in the House and Senate, and his supporters are now waiting for Democratic leaders to move him to a vote.