Democrats draft five antitrust bills to curb tech giant market power

After being sponsored for introduction, the bills will need to win bipartisan support

House Democrats have drafted five antitrust bills that aim to curb market power of tech giants like Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google, and restrict them from discriminating against competitors.

The draft bills are being circulated to potential co-sponsors and are likely to be introduced soon.

The proposals come following a 16-month-long antitrust investigation by the House Judiciary subcommittee into four tech giants. The subcommittee concluded in its report last year that Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are effectively monopolies, which should be broken up to restore competition and improve innovation in the industry.

The report argued that tech firms were abusing their power to control access to markets and pick winners and losers. They also accused the companies of imposing harsh contract terms, charging excessive fees and extracting data from customers.

While Republicans on the subcommittee did not agree with some proposals from Democrats, several agreed with the need to curb monopoly power through antitrust reforms.

The five draft bills, seen by CNBC, propose several legislative solutions to force tech firms to reshape parts of their business and curtail big acquisitions.

One bill proposes making it illegal for a large platform (with a market cap over $600 billion and at least 500,000 monthly active US users) to own or operate multiple lines of business that present a clear conflict of interest (for example, favouring their own services over a rival's).

The bill would allow prosecutors to break up such firms, by forcing them to sell off lines of business if they represent a conflict of interest.

A second bill would prohibit major platforms from giving their own services or products advantages over those of rivals.

A third bill would force dominant platforms to be interoperable, so that users are able to switch services more easily and take their data to other platforms - which may have implications for multicloud.

The fourth bill proposes increasing the fees companies pay to the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division as they notify them of large mergers.

Finally, the fifth bill proposes shifting the burden of proof in merger cases to dominant platforms. It will require companies to prove their acquisitions are lawful, rather than the government having to prove they will harm competition. This legislation will likely slow acquisitions by big tech firms.

The language of draft bills could change before they are finally introduced, and then they need to win support from both parties.

"Giving antitrust enforcers more funding and encouraging data portability are relatively uncontroversial ideas, but banning conveniences like Amazon Basics brand batteries, Apple's Find my Phone tool, or Google Maps appearing in Google search results are ideas that would spark a consumer backlash," Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress, an advocacy group backed by Facebook, Amazon, Google and others, wrote in a blog post.

"Instead of focusing on helping families, these proposals inexplicably target a bunch of technological conveniences that most people really like."

"Let's hope Democrats stay focused on the right things."