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Tech companies take aim at Klobuchar antitrust bill

NetChoice, a group that says its mission is to “make the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression,” and that the federal government should use a “light touch” when it comes to regulating tech companies, is among the groups that have run digital and television ads against Klobuchar’s bills this year, targeting key senators.

“We want to make constituents aware of what their lawmakers are doing,” said NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo.

To him, Klobuchar’s bill would “increase prices, decrease choice and break a number of features Americans have.”

Among the features he said the legislation would end is the alerts he receives when his 9- and 6-year-old sons try to make a purchase on the internet.

But to Szabo, perhaps the worst aspect of the bill is that it singles out certain companies. Under the bill, covered entities are publicly traded companies that have 50 million or more monthly active U.S. users and net annual sales of $550 billion or more in the past two years. That would encompass Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google.

The latest version of the bill also includes private companies that have 50 million monthly U.S. users and 1 billion active users worldwide, which Szabo said was aimed at capturing TikTok.

Szabo said the bill was drafted in a “capricious manner” to unconstitutionally single out certain companies.

“This is a pet project of Klobuchar’s, not to help consumers, but to help companies she likes,” Szabo said.