Bill against big-tech companies abusing market power approved by US senate

In what is seen as a blow to tech giants Amazon, Alphabet and the likes, the US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday has approved a Bill that will bar these companies from giving their own solutions and businesses preferences on their websites, according to a Reuters report. 

Technology companies such as Facebook and Apple have widely been criticized in the Congress for abusing their market power, and a long list of Bills are in the works to tackle the issue, with none of them yet to become law. 

The move is expected to have an impact on India as well, as most of these technology companies have a considerable presence in India for both their B2B and B2C operations. 

The lawmakers in the senate voted on an amended version of the Bill, with an amendment being included to bring firms such as TikTok and others under the purview of the Bill. 

The bill also specified that companies did not need to share data with firms that were categorised as national security risks by the US government.   

“We have a lot of support for this Bill. We don’t have a lot of money to run TV ads in favour of it like those that oppose it, but we have a lot of support,” Klobuchar, who is the chair of the antitrust Panel said. 

Another Bill, called the Open App Markets Act, which was on schedule, was held over. The Bill would bar big app stores, such as Apple, from forcing application providers to compulsorily use their payment systems and also prohibit them from acting against apps that offer different prices through other payment systems or app store. 

Meanwhile, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said during the hearing that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook expressed significant concerns about the Bill, citing that it would make it harder for Apple to protect the privacy of their consumers if Apple was unable to monitor or track their online activities. 

“Antitrust policy should aim to promote consumer welfare-not punish specific companies,” said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, who criticised the bills, even going on to predict that it would not pass the Senate.