GOP-controlled House will likely rescind antitrust legislation targeting Apple, Amazon, and Google

The tech giants Google, Amazon, and Apple are likely to be able to avoid congressional efforts to rein in some of their controversial and allegedly anticompetitive business practices this year — despite the fact that the legislation has generally been supported by a broad bipartisan majority in Congress.

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Rep. Ken Buck, the former chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust issues, said in an interview that the new Republican leadership in the U.S. House seems unwilling to put tougher antitrust regulations in place for the tech giants to ensure they do not abuse their dominant position in the market to block smaller rivals.

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Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told Trade Algo in a separate interview that the GOP doesn't want to give the Biden administration more authority and resources.

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“Neither Speaker McCarthy nor Chairman Jordan nor Chairman Massie seems to be advocates for the antitrust, pro-competition solution to Big Tech’s problem,” Buck said, referring to Jordan, McCarthy, and Massie, the Judiciary subcommittee's antitrust chair. Despite the fact that Buck had been in line to chair the panel as ranking Republican in the previous Congress, Jordan, R-Ohio, chose Massie, R-Ky., to lead the subcommittee in this Congress instead of Buck.

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Vocal critic

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As someone who has been a vocal critic of tech giants for several years, Buck believes that tighter antitrust regulations would help make the market fairer for smaller tech companies competing against Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other big tech companies that are accused of using their platforms to promote their own proprietary products or services above those of their competitors.

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In response to the question of whether his campaign to rein in the tech giants through antitrust and his cosponsorship of bills with Democrats may have cost him the chairmanship of the antitrust panel, Buck replied, “No one ever said that to me, but I think it's a fair conclusion.”

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As Jordan pointed out, GOP leaders restructured its committee in order to include lawmakers who are concerned about curbing what they view as excessive regulation by the Biden administration, particularly the Federal Trade Commission, and not strengthening oversight over the industry as a whole.

“We just felt that Thomas Massie was a good fit for the way that the Judiciary Committee was structured at the time. It is something that we are thinking about, and we do not want to give any more power to those agencies," Jordan told Trade Algo in an interview. “There is no one more dedicated to limiting the size and scope of government than Thomas Massie when it comes to limiting its size and scope.”

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For the time being at least, the tech companies may be spared expensive new regulations that could have prevented them from surviving - for now - but they may not be entirely safe from Capitol Hill scrutiny in the future. Several Republican House leaders want to investigate whether tech companies have been censoring conservative voices, according to a member of the tech industry who is an ally of McCarthy's and declined to be named due to the nature of private conversations with GOP leaders.

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Subpoenas sent

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There has already been a subpoena issued by Jordan for the CEOs of Google parent Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft. The subpoena asked for communications between the companies and the federal government in order to better understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with the companies and other intermediaries in order to censor speech..”

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Throughout Jordan's career, he has repeatedly questioned the usefulness of antitrust legislation, instead choosing to focus on what he believes is a systematic censorship of conservative voices by the major tech platforms rather than the usefulness of antitrust legislation. The bill was put through a 23-hour markup in June 2021, and Jordan pointed out that the legislation was not sufficient in addressing the censorship concerns raised by Rep. David Cicilline, D-RI, and Buck at the time.

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Buck, on the other hand, recently told Trade Algo that bias problems on platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are only visible as a symptom of the larger problem of inadequate competition in the online market as a whole. Basically, this is due to the fact that there are only a few monopolistic companies that have control over the biggest platforms.

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Several representatives from Meta and Microsoft responded to Trade Algo's request for information by referring to previous statements in which they said that they were cooperating with Jordan's subpoena request. A request for comment from each of the other tech giants mentioned in this article was not responded to.

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There was a great deal of optimism among those who advocated the reform of antitrust laws last year about the likelihood of enacting major legislation that would strengthen competition rules for online shopping platforms, mobile apps, and other relatively new technologies. In terms of the prominent proposal at the time, it was the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, a measure championed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., chair of the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member on the full Judiciary committee, as well as other members. Although it passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and similar legislation advanced out of the House Judiciary Committee, neither chamber was able to vote on the legislation because neither chamber had the votes to do so.

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Bipartisan support

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The antitrust bill Buck introduced in May garnered widespread bipartisan support, including support from Reps. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. Several lawmakers have stated that this legislation, which would have barred big digital ad platforms such as Google from owning multiple parts of the system to buy and sell such ads, may still have a chance of passing this Congress, Buck says.

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The tech industry has spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying the U.S. government over the past few decades. During the first quarter of 2022, Apple, which was the target of two major bills last year, spent more on lobbying than in any other quarter of the year, spending $2.5 million in that period and $9.4 million for all of the year, representing a 44% increase in comparison with spending in 2021.

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Legislators often jam popular proposals through at the end of the two-year congressional session after the August recess, when proponents held out hope they might still have a chance. But Congress did not take any action on the most significant antitrust legislation during that period. There was a bill passed by Congress that assisted in increasing funding to the enforcement agencies as well as another that allowed state attorneys general to select which district they would like to bring their antitrust lawsuits against.

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Senate takes lead

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Buck, on the other hand, wants the Senate to pass any antitrust legislation this Congress so that it can get momentum in the House so it can gain momentum in the Senate as well.

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In order to accomplish this, he may have to do so without one of his closest allies on antitrust issues, Cicilline, who chaired the subcommittee of the House Judiciary that investigated Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook during its investigation of those companies. There is a possibility that the democratic representative will leave Congress in the next few months to become the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation.

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Buck said that one of the bills he is watching carefully is the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act, which was introduced in the previous Congress and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, among others. The law could force Google, Facebook, and Amazon to sell off chunks of their advertising businesses if it is passed and signed into law. Likewise, Buck sponsored a companion bill in the House that was identical to the Senate bill.

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Upon being asked how he plans on taking on Big Tech since he is no longer running the subcommittee, Buck replied: "Well, that's a great question and if you have any suggestions to help me out with that, I would appreciate it," he explained. “I am not the chairman of the subcommittee, nor am I the chairman of the full committee. However, I am aware that the Senate is introducing bills. We'll introduce bills in the House as well."