Source: United States Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar
Klobuchar: “We know we need change, that just keeping on going like we are and saying everything’s fine and we trust you, it’s just not enough.”
WATCH CHAIRWOMAN KLOBUCHAR’S CLOSING REMARKS HERE
WASHINGTON – At today’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights hearing titled “Big Data, Big Questions: Implications for Competition and Consumers,” U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Subcommittee, concluded the hearing by emphasizing the need for antitrust reform and enforcement across industries.
“We know we need change, that just keeping on going like we are and saying everything’s fine and we trust you, it’s just not enough,” Klobuchar said.
She continued: “We’re glad that these companies have been successful, we’re glad that they employ people, we truly are…But then there’s also competition concerns that once you get so big and have so much dominance, that there are these barriers to entry that make it impossible to allow competition. And that in turn, in the long term, allows for too much money in the same few hands. It allows for companies to start preferencing themselves.”
The full transcript of Senator Klobuchar’s opening remarks as given below and video available for TV download HERE and online viewing HERE.
Well I want to thank everyone for coming, there is a lot going on, we have a bill this week before the full Committee, for markup on venue, that Senator Lee and I have done together. The companion in the House, we have the funding bills and proposals that are very ripe for action right now, we have other bills that are tech-specific with Senator Blumenthal and Senator Blackburn and myself with the App bill, interoperability proposals from the past, and then we have the anti-discrimination bills for exlusionary conduct and the like that we’re in the middle of right now, working on. The House of course has some proposals, some similar to ours, some different, but we’ve been working closely with our counterparts, which are Representative Cicilline and Representative Buck.
Also, we have broader bills. We had a hearing on meatpacking and consolidation in the grocery area, which was very well attended with the full committee here. Senator Lee and Senator Grassley have a broad bill on antitrust, I have another one with a number of cosponsors. There are some similarities in the bills, right, Senator Lee? Yes there are.
So we’re also looking at that. Across industry lines, about things that we can do that aren’t just about tech actually, that hit the fact that we’re seeing consolidation across this country from everything from cat food to coffins. It’s not really good to end with the word coffin, although, you know, we’re not too far from Halloween.
I just want to thank the witnesses and assure you that we continue to want to work with everyone, but we know we need change, that just keeping on going like we are and saying everything’s fine and we trust you, it’s just not enough.
We’re glad that these companies have been successful, we’re glad that they employ people, we truly are. I have a Fitbit, Senator Lee and I have compared some of our Fitbit data over the years, I’m not going to reveal that, although you guys already know it, so there.
But at the same time, we believe in capitalism, and encouraging capitalism, and rejuvenating capitalism, and a lot of what’s going on right now are the obvious privacy concerns, many of which you heard today with lots of understandable emotion. But then there’s also competition concerns that once you get so big and have so much dominance, that there are these barriers to entry that make it impossible to allow competition. And that in turn, in the long term, allows for too much money in the same few hands. It allows for companies to start preferencing themselves.
And while we’ve seen incredible developments in technology, we do not deny that,
we’ll never know some of the new bells and whistles on privacy we might have seen if we didn’t have Facebook buy Instagram or Whatsapp – if there’d been some control on that. That’s one of the reasons I support looking back in some of the most consolidated industries, just as we did in the days of the AT&T breakup, to figure out what we can do to make this area more competitive.
You’re not going to find a more interested and energized subcommittee than this one as you can see from today, including some visitors that aren’t even on the subcommittee, whom we welcome. So thank you. We will keep the record open for a week. Thank you to Marc and Avery and Senator Lee and his staff…thank you, the hearing is adjourned.
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