Source: United States Senator for Montana Steve Daines
U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines today introduced a bipartisan bill, the “American Innovation and Choice Online Act,” to help increase competition online and bolster small businesses. Daines’ bipartisan legislation would restore competition to the digital marketplace and level the playing field between Big Tech giants and Montana small businesses that sell their goods and services online.
“Time and again we have seen Big Tech use its power to stifle online competition and manipulate the marketplace,” Daines said. “This bipartisan bill will help level the playing field and ensure Montana business owners are able to have full access to the online marketplace to grow and create Montana jobs and support local economies.”
The “American Innovation and Choice Online Act” will:
- Set clear, effective rules to protect competition and users doing business on dominant online platforms, including:
- Prohibiting dominant platforms from abusing their gatekeeper power by favoring their own products or services, disadvantaging rivals, or discriminating among businesses that use their platforms in a way that reduces competition on the platform; and
- Prohibiting conduct that harms small businesses, entrepreneurs, and consumers, including:
- Preventing another business’s product or service from interoperating with the dominant platform or another business;
- Requiring a business to buy a dominant platform’s goods or services to receive preferred placement on its platform;
- Using a business’s data to compete against them; and
- Biasing search results in favor of the dominant firm.
- Give antitrust enforcers strong, flexible tools to prevent anti-competitive actions and hold dominant platforms accountable when they cross the line into illegal behavior.
- Prevent self-preferencing and discriminatory conduct by Big Tech giants that are critical for online businesses. For such platforms, the rules promote businesses’ ability to innovate, do business, and engage in pro-consumer conduct, including protecting user privacy and safety, and prevent unlawful behavior, and maintain a secure online experience for users.
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Contact: Katherine McKeogh, Katie Schoettler