Rep. David Cicilline (Democrat – Rhode Island) says passing antitrust regulation to rein in companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google is going to be tough, reported Venture Beat.
Cicilline believes Congress will need the American people’s help to enact any meaningful reforms. Cicilline is chair of the antitrust subcommittee in Congress and spoke Sunday, october 4, at a Yale University School of Law conference on antitrust and Big Tech.
His remarks precede the anticipated release of what Cicilline calls the most extensive antitrust law reform investigation by Congress in over 50 years. Identifying anticompetitive behavior by big companies is pretty easy, he said, but developing solutions and gathering the political support needed for reform is a challenge.
“We’re going to have to combat companies that have an enormous stake in maintaining the status quo, which has been enormously profitable for them, and so this will be a big fight,” he said. “We’re going to need the support of the American people when we move forward with this legislation. It will only happen if we can rally the country around it because we’re fighting against strong economic forces and powerful corporations that are likely to oppose what we’re trying to do. And getting the American people on our side to understand it matters in their daily lives is going to be really critical.”
Cicilline said it’s important for the American people to understand that the rise of Big Tech companies has resulted in declines in innovation, trustworthy news sources, consumer choices, quality, and worker power, along with increased costs for consumers.
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