ICYMI: A Dozen Groups Call On Lawmakers To Address Economic Harms Of Proposed Anti-Tech Bills
A dozen organizations sent a letter to lawmakers to address the economic harms that proposed antitrust legislation will have on American consumers and businesses of all sizes. The broad, diverse, and bipartisan array of signatories includes the Computer & Communications Industry Association, TechNet, the Small Business Entrepreneurship Council, U.S. Hispanic Business Council, NetChoice, Consumer Technology Association, Software & Information Industry Association, Connected Commerce Council, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Schumpeter Project, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, Americans for Prosperity, and National Taxpayers Union.
The letter follows an economic study from the National Economic Research Associates (NERA) finding that anti-tech bills would cost the U.S. economy up to $319 billion. The costs would be passed on to consumers and business users of the targeted companies “in the form of higher retail costs and the loss of free and valued services.” The study also found that the loss of popular services such as Amazon Prime could cost consumers up to $22 billion per year.
The letter warned the bills will cause a range of economic harms:
— Higher consumer and business costs amid high inflation: “Americans across the country are facing the highest inflation in forty years, and these bills will further raise costs on American consumers and businesses who use the targeted platforms, including many small and medium-sized businesses.”
— Harms to American companies beyond ‘tech’: “The antitrust bills will cause economy-wide harm beyond just ‘tech.’ The antitrust bills are messaged as just targeting Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, but the NERA analysis reveals that the use of simplistic language that relies on market capitalization means that more American companies would be captured in just a few years: 13 additional companies in the next 5 to 10 years and likely over 100 companies by the 2030s.”
— Hamper American competitiveness in the global economy: “The antitrust bills would also harm international competitiveness by applying U.S.-specific size thresholds that would cover only U.S.-based companies and not foreign competitors of a similar size. While some of the bills include global size thresholds, they are set 20 times higher than the U.S.-specific size thresholds, creating a bias against U.S.-based companies, whose early users are disproportionately American.”
— Hurt American startups, small businesses, and the entrepreneurial culture: “The bills would particularly harm U.S.-based startups, which are a recognized driver of U.S. innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as small and mid-sized businesses that seek to grow and partner with larger companies.”