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MW House Democrats just introduced 5 antitrust bills aimed at reining in Big Tech

By Jon Swartz

House members on Friday introduced five antitrust bills -- including one that would force Amazon.com Inc. and others to essentially split into two companies or shed their private-label products -- in the most aggressive action yet by federal lawmakers to rein in the market influence of Big Tech.

Another bill targets the ability of companies, presumably Amazon $(AMZN)$, Apple Inc. $(AAPL)$, and Google parent Alphabet Inc. $(GOOGL)$(GOOGL), to leverage their online platforms to favor their own products over competitors.

The "Ending Platform Monopolies Act," which proposes structural separation, in part says, "It shall be unlawful for a covered platform operator to own or control a line of business, other than the covered platform, when the covered platform's ownership or control of that line of business gives rise to an irreconcilable conflict of interest." The Wall Street Journal first reported on the bill.

"Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy," Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., chairman of the House's Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law, said in a statement announcing the legislation. "They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work. Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure the wealthiest, most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us."

Congress has spent 15 months investigating the vast powers of tech's biggest names, which also includes Facebook Inc. (FB) The arrival of the bills coincide with another round of antitrust travails for two of tech's biggest companies this week.

Read more: House Democrats set to reshape antitrust law with 5 new bills

Both Google and Amazon face investigations or fines from domestic and foreign regulators.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee announced Friday that executives from Amazon and Google are scheduled to testify next week, along with an exec from speaker maker Sonos Inc. (SONO), a critic of the two tech behemoths. Amazon Associate General Counsel Ryan McCrate and Google's public policy specialist Wilson White are slated to testify, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the panel, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a statement.

-Jon Swartz; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

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June 11, 2021 14:42 ET (18:42 GMT)

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