Explained | What do the Bills in US House mean for tech giants?

Lawmakers in the United States have proposed five Bills that aim to curb the dominance of the country’s Big Tech companies, while seeking firms like Amazon to effectively spilt into two or dismiss their private-label products.

One of the Bills, titled "Ending Platform Monopolies Act", ban these companies from owning subsidiaries that operate on their platform while competing with other companies. It will force these tech giants to structurally break up their businesses.

“From Amazon and Facebook to Google and Apple, it is clear that these unregulated tech giants have become too big to care and too powerful to ever put people over profits,” told US Representative Pramila Jayapal.

Another Bill titled "American Choice and Innovation Online Act" targets platforms self-preferencing, barring them from enjoying the "advantages the covered platform operator's own products, services, or lines of business over those of another business user.” If the law is violated, the companies are expected to pay 30 per cent of the affected business’s US revenue.

The "Platform Competition and Opportunity Act" doesn’t allow the big companies to acquire companies that are a threat to the services and products available on the platform. Such a merger is allowed if it can be proved that the acquired company is not a competition for the already existing business.

In the fourth Bill called the ACCESS Act, the lawmakers demand the platforms allow their users to share their data and businesses to export their customer reviews to other sites if they desire. It also includes the competition of these tech giants.

The last Bill titled "Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act" seeks to raise the merger fees for those valued at more than $1 billion while lowering the fees for the mergers valued at less than $500,000. This is estimated to generate $135 million in the first year for the antitrust enforcement agencies and ensure the mergers are legal. The Senate has passed a similar Bill in the recent past.

The proposed Bills need to be passed by the Democratic-controlled House and the Senate. The Bills need a substantial amount of support from Republicans in the Senate, who are sceptical about the changing of the antitrust laws as well as worried about the power these tech giants hold.

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