5 bills to rein in Big Tech unveiled

Lawmakers in the United States put forward five bills on Friday aimed at curbing the market power of so-called Big Tech.

The bipartisan legislation is aimed at tackling the issues identified in a 15-month investigation into the market dominance of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook, carried out by the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee.

The probe found that the four tech giants had abused their market power by charging excessive fees, imposing tough contract terms and extracting crucial data from individuals and businesses that use their services.

The potentially game-changing legislative package must now pass through several votes before being signed into law by US President Joe Biden.

What changes would the legislation make?

The measures would make it harder for mega-companies like Amazon and Google to buy out smaller competitors in mergers — they have completed dozens of these in recent years.

It would facilitate the breakup of firms that use their dominant position in their core business to make deep inroads into another.

The proposals would prohibit Big Tech companies from favoring their own products and services over competitors on their platforms.

The bills also ask Congress to boost the enforcement powers of antitrust regulators, such as the Federal Trade Commission.

"They [Big Tech companies] are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers and put folks out of work," the House Judiciary's Antitrust Subcommittee chairman David Cicilline said, introducing the measures on Friday.

The goal, he said, is to "level the playing field" and ensure that powerful tech companies follow the same rules as other businesses.

Why have the bills been proposed now?

Tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation for decades, but they are now facing increasing scrutiny in the US and Europe due to concerns about monopoly-like power.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) economies pledged last week to commit to a minimum global level of corporate tax of at least 15%, following an initial proposal by Biden.

The move aims to get multinationals — particularly tech giants — to pay more into government coffers hit hard by the pandemic.

What next for the proposed legislation?

The antitrust bills need to be debated and voted favorably out of the Judiciary Committee before receiving a vote by the full House of Representatives.

They would then need approval from the Senate before they could be signed into law by Biden.

kmm/mm (AFP, AP)