WASHINGTON—Today, NetChoice expressed opposition to the House Majority’s latest antitrust report led by Chairman of House Judiciary, Rep. David Cicilline (D-NY). The report as distributed lacks any Republican support and its investigation comes to the misguided conclusion that Congress should break up America’s leading tech companies.
“Clearly there is no bipartisan support for this progressive push. Despite leading the majority, the Democrats and Chairman Cicilline failed to find a single Republican committee member to cosign, forcing Democrats to stand alone in recommending policies that raise prices and reduce consumer welfare,” said Carl Szabo, Vice President and General Counsel of NetChoice.
“The Democrats’ policies prohibit standard practices that benefit consumers today, such as Amazon Basics and Google Maps with business reviews — that’s like barring Costco from selling its Kirkland brand and stopping Netflix from showing its own programming. Such proposals are so harmful that they stand to stifle small businesses and put cronyism ahead of consumer interests at a time of skyrocketing inflation,” continued Szabo.
“The harm from radical antitrust legislation would put the United States at a global disadvantage and leave Americans worse off. Its reach would extend far beyond just digital markets: to consumers of every business, in every industry, in every state.”
Recent Research Highlighting Key Problems With Progressive Antitrust Push
In a recent paper titled “Antitrust Laws Will Make Inflation Worse,” renowned economist Dr. Art Laffer details how similar proposals to reform antitrust will torture the American economy. Specifically, he finds that S. 2992 will increase inflation, undermine American antitrust principles that protect consumers, and grow the power of the executive branch with no increase in oversight, all the while lacking the necessary data and research to back up its central goal and intended impact.
According to polling from NetChoice and Echelon Insights, Americans want policymakers to focus on inflation—and only 1% want them to focus on tech regulation. 85% of Americans are also concerned that tech regulation would drive prices even higher.
“If this is the best antitrust case that Democrats can make, it’s clear there is no case to be made to break up America’s best tech companies. This report if implemented squashes innovation and fuels price hikes, and it risks undermining the quality American antitrust policy that makes our economy the envy of the world.”
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