Around a dozen U.S. senators across all political parties officially introduced a bill on Monday aimed at preventing big tech platforms such as amazon and Google from favoring their products and services.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Chuck Grassley’s bill would prohibit platforms from requiring companies operating on their websites to purchase the platform’s goods or services, and prohibit them from distorting search results to favor their own platform. Co-sponsors include five Democrats and five Republicans.
A companion bill has passed the House Judiciary Committee and still needs to be approved by both houses of Congress to become law.
When the law was announced last week, both Amazon and Google warned of potential unintended consequences.
Amazon said in a statement that if enacted, the law “could potentially harm consumers and the more than 500,000 small and medium-sized businesses that sell on its platform,” putting at risk the more than 1 million jobs created by these companies.
Google said the law would make it harder for companies to offer free services – Google’s search and maps are both free – and would make “those services less safe, less private and less secure.”
Facebook, which competes with a number of social media companies including TikTok and Twitter, said the antitrust law should “not attempt to dismantle the products and services people depend on.”