A bill aimed at controlling the power of platforms like Amazon and Alphabet has had enough votes to pass in the next few weeks.
The event rallying in favor of measures to prevent monopolies of some technology platforms has been introduced before the Senate and House of Representatives. Representative David Cicilline, chairman of the House antitrust subcommittee, said: “I’m very confident when these bills come to the floor, they will pass. Convincingly”
He said the best situation is that the bill will soon be listed on the floor next week, or in the worst case, into July.
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, chair of the Senate’s antitrust panel, also said she has enough support in the Senate to win approval.
On Tuesday (June 14), Representative Ken Buck, a Republican donor, said he supports this bill because conservative views are being stifled online. “We’re being discriminated against,” he said.
The bill was once the subject of intense lobbying. Tech giants have warned of dire consequences like the disappearance of the popular online app Google Maps. Chairman Cicilline denied the allegations on Tuesday.
However, the American Chamber of Commerce has opposed the bills. The agency said the law would empower the government bureaucracy to rule. When that happens, competition will no longer be judged on merit, instead, consumer concerns will be set aside in favor of competitors.
Dozens of companies and business organizations sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers on Monday (June 13), urging them to support the measures. Companies calling for support include Yelp, Sonos, DuckDuckGo and Spotify.
Previously, the UK government’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had also made accusations of monopolizing Apple and Google’s mobile platforms, causing users to lose the opportunity to use better service.
@ Vietnamnet
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Source: Vietnam Insider