By Washington Post Editorial Board
Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) are going after Big Tech with a new bill — and this time, the muscular rhetoric belies the proposal’s more modest nature. That’s a positive.
The legislation is companion to a House Judiciary Committee measure in an antitrust package filled with plenty of good ideas and plenty of bad ones. The Senate’s version adds some necessary nuance. The animating principle is that so-called gatekeeper companies (or “critical trading partners”), essential to other businesses’ ability to reach their customers, should be constrained from abusing their position. The bill explicitly prohibits some practices. Other potential malfeasance it addresses with a general prohibition against unfairly giving preference to one’s own products; unfairly limiting others’ ability to compete; and unfairly discriminating when enforcing terms of service.
