Beyond BASED? The Digital Markets Act's Influence on US Antitrust Legislation

California introduced the “Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms (BASED) Act,” becoming the first state to propose heavy-handed, tech-specific antitrust rules that mirror the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Specifically, the legislation focused on banning so-called “self-preferencing,” a common practice in the digital economy where firms integrate complementary services. While the BASED Act died in the California Senate Committee on Privacy, Data, Technology & Commerce on April 20, the specter of federal DMA-inspired legislation looms large.

Following the BASED Act's failure, will Congress reintroduce the American Innovation and Choice Online Act to ban self-preferencing nationwide? Will the Open App Markets Act and the Advertising Middlemen Endangering Rigorous Internet Competition Accountability Act also be reintroduced? How do these bills relate to the BASED Act and the DMA?

Please join ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy for a panel with top experts to discuss these bills, their implications for competition in the United States, and their potential effects on America’s leading tech firms, innovation, and consumers.

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