of US deputies present 5 anti-GAFAM laws
Democrats in the House of Representatives will present this week 5 bills aimed at limiting the power of tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. According to the Politico site, these are the most ambitious measures ever taken to stem the influence of Silicon Valley.
If you are a regular reader of Phonandroid, you will not know that not a week goes by without us mentioning in our columns yet another lawsuit for abuse of dominant position of Facebook or Amazon, or for anti-competitive practices of from Google.
And precisely, after having multiplied the actions against the GAFAM in recent years (without real success), the American Congress has decided to tackling tech giants head-on. As reported by our colleagues from the Politico site, Democrats in the House of Representatives should present next week a set of five bills aimed at banning tech giants like Apple, Facebook, Google and Amazon fromdiscriminate against their rivals or buy from potential competitors.
It is about “the most serious effort ever undertaken to limit the power of Silicon Valley ”, after years of complaints from the US Congress. Of these 5 proposals, the most controversial would allow prosecutors organize the dismantling of large tech companies. Justice could thus order these giants to sell sectors of activity if they represent conflicts of interest.
Read also: Ohio wants Google to become a public service to avoid anti-competitive practices
US Congress attacks GAFAM
This anti-GAFAM campaign aims to implement the recommendations of the report of the Judicial Commission of the House of Representatives published in autumn 2020 on competition in digital markets. After a long-term investigation, this commission came to the conclusion that the four tech giants mentioned above have monopolized various aspects of the online economy.
“Right now, unregulated technology monopolies have too much power over our economy. They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices for consumers and put people out of work. Our agenda will level the playing field and ensure that the richest and most powerful tech monopolies play by the same rules as the rest of us.“Said David Ciciline, Democratic MP for Rhode Island and chairman of the Antitrust subcommittee.
As a reminder, the member countries of the G7 recently reached an agreement authorizing the establishment of a minimum global tax rate of at least 15% on the largest multinationals. These provisions would force Google, Amazon and Apple to finally pay their taxes in Europe.
Source: Politico
