House Bills Seek to Break Up Amazon and Other Big Tech Companies
Legislation could force e-commerce giant, others to split into two companies or shed some products and services
House lawmakers proposed a raft of bipartisan legislation aimed at reining in the power of Big Tech, including a bill that seeks to make Amazon. AMZN -0.08% com Inc. and other large companies effectively split into two companies or shed their private-label products.
The House bills, announced Friday, amount to the biggest Congressional broadside yet on a handful of technology companies—including Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -0.30% Google, Apple Inc. AAPL 0.98% and Facebook Inc. FB -0.36% as well as Amazon—whose enormous size and power have drawn growing scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and Europe.
If the bills become law—a prospect that still faces significant hurdles—they could substantially alter the most richly valued companies in America and reshape an industry that has extended its impact into nearly every facet of work and life.
One of the proposed measures, titled the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, seeks to require structural separation of Amazon and other big technology companies to break up their businesses. It would make it unlawful for a covered online platform to own a business that “utilizes the covered platform for the sale or provision of products or services” or that sells services as a condition for access to the platform. The platform company also couldn’t own businesses that create conflicts of interest, such as by creating the “incentive and ability” for the platform to advantage its own products over competitors.
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Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to overhaul their business practices under an expansive set of antitrust reforms introduced by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Friday.
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The package of five bills would make it harder for dominant platforms to complete mergers and prohibit them from owning business lines that present clear conflicts of interest.
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The measures come in the wake of a lengthy investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust into the four companies that was completed last year.
Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google could be forced to overhaul their business practices under an expansive set of antitrust reforms introduced by a bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Friday.
The package of five bills, draft versions of which were reported by CNBC and other outlets, would make it harder for dominant platforms to complete mergers and prohibit them from owning businesses that present clear conflicts of interest. The legislation represents the most comprehensive effort to reform century-old antitrust laws in decades.