House lawmakers on Friday unveiled five bills designed to rein in big tech companies and loosen their hold on digital industries.
The legislation is specifically directed at Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook, which have all faced increased scrutiny over antitrust concerns in recent years. The bills have some bipartisan support and would equip regulators with more power to control tech firms from holding too much market dominance, their sponsors said.
“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,” Rep. David Cicilline, the House’s antitrust subcommittee chairman, said in a press release. “They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work”
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
The five bills are described below:
>The “American Innovation and Choice Online Act” would prohibit companies from discriminating against smaller competitors and prioritizing their products ahead of others.
>The “Platform Competition and Opportunity Act” would empower regulators to block dominant companies from acquiring would-be competitors.
