Schumpeterian Takes on Pending Antitrust Bills in the 117th Congress
Instead of promoting competitive digital markets for the benefit of consumers, many of the techlash-driven proposals advancing in the House and Senate would inhibit innovation and skew competition to the detriment of the digital economy and consumers alike.
As lawmakers in Congress consider legislative proposals under the banner of antitrust reform, there is a distinct risk they will enact policies that have damaging unintended consequences. Indeed, instead of promoting competitive markets for the benefit of consumers, many of the techlash-driven proposals advancing in the House and Senate would inhibit innovation and skew competition to the detriment of the digital economy and consumers alike. ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy provides ongoing commentary analysis of antitrust bills as they advance through the legislative process. Our goal is to promote a new, dynamic framework for competition policy in which innovation is a central concern for antitrust enforcement, not a secondary consideration. It is through that lens that we examine each proposal.
Table 1: Legislative analysis by bill (last updated August 31, 2022)
|
Bill(s) |
Schumpeter Project’s Take |
|
Multiple |
▪ How Congress Got It Wrong on Tech Industry Competition ▪ The House’s Antitrust Legislative Package: An Innovation Perspective ▪ Op-Art: Anti-Tech Antitrust vs. Competitiveness Legislation |
|
S.673 — Journalism Competition and Preservation Act |
▪ History Shows That the News Industry Does Not Need a Handout from Big Tech |
|
S.2992 — American Innovation and Choice Online Act |
▪ The Revised (But Uncorrected) Version of the Klobuchar Bill ▪ Potential Unintended Consequences for Social Media of Mandatory Interoperability Requirements ▪ Banning “Closed” Mobile Ecosystems Would Hurt Consumer Choice and Competition ▪ Is Congress Committed to Making American Consumers’ Lives Costlier? |
|
S.3197 — Platform Competition and Opportunity Act |
▪ The Platform Competition and Opportunity Act Is a Solution in Search of a Problem ▪ Is Congress Committed to Making American Consumers’ Lives Costlier? |
|
S.4258 — Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act |
