Hirono, Colleagues Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation to Boost Competition and Rein in Big Tech

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined seven of her Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues in reintroducing the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. This bipartisan legislation, led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), would restore competition online by establishing common sense rules of the road for dominant digital platforms to prevent them from abusing their market power to hurt competition, online businesses, and consumers. 

“Our online markets are dominated by a few companies that have used this dominance to preference their own products and disadvantage rivals. This abuse of power eliminates fair competition and harms the public by limiting consumer choice,” said Senator Hirono. “By holding online giants accountable, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act will help put an end to this distortion and foster a fair and open market where small businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers can thrive.”

Last year, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act made history as the first digital competition bill since the dawn of the internet to advance in Congress when it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a 16-6 vote. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act will:

• Set clear, effective rules to protect competition and users doing business on dominant online platforms, including:
• Prohibiting dominant platforms from abusing their gatekeeper power by favoring their own products or services, disadvantaging rivals, or discriminating among businesses that use their platforms in a manner that would materially harm competition on the platform; and
• Prohibiting specific forms of conduct that are harmful to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers, but that do not have any pro-competitive benefit, including:
• Preventing another business’s product or service from interoperating with the dominant platform or another business;
• Requiring a business to buy a dominant platform’s goods or services for preferred placement on its platform;
• Misusing a business’s data to compete against them; and 
• Biasing search results in favor of the dominant firm.
• Give antitrust enforcers strong, flexible tools to deter violations and hold dominant platforms accountable when they cross the line into illegal behavior, including significant civil penalties, authority to seek broad injunctions, emergency interim relief, and potential forfeiture of executive compensation.
• Prevent self-preferencing and discriminatory conduct by the most economically significant online platforms with large U.S. user bases which function as “critical trading partners” for online businesses. For such platforms, the rules target harmful conduct, allowing the platforms to innovate, do business, and engage in pro-consumer conduct, including protecting user privacy and safety, preventing unlawful behavior, and maintaining a secure online experience for users.

In addition to Senators Hirono, Klobuchar, and Grassley, the legislation was also cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Last Congress, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act was supported by the National Federation of Independent Business, Consumer Reports, the Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, leading national security experts, leading antitrust legal scholars, small business organizations, and over 60 small and medium-sized companies and trade associations, including Spotify, Wyze, FuboTV and Quora.

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