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Apple, Amazon, Google Will Likely Get a Reprieve From GOP-Controlled House on Antitrust Legislation (cnbc.com) 60

Posted by msmash from the changing-dynamics dept.
Tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple are likely to get a reprieve in Congress this year from efforts to rein in some of the companies' most controversial and allegedly anti-competitive business practices -- even though the legislation has typically enjoyed broad bipartisan support. From a report: The new Republican leadership in the U.S. House doesn't appear to have the appetite to impose tougher antitrust rules on the tech giants to ensure they don't abuse their dominant position in the market to block smaller rivals, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., the former the top Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust issues, said in an interview. The GOP also doesn't want to give the Biden administration more power and resources, House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told CNBC in a separate interview.

"I don't think Speaker McCarthy, Chairman Jordan or Chairman Massie are advocates for the antitrust, pro-competition solution to the Big Tech problem," Buck said, referring to Jordan, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Thomas Massie, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. Although Buck was next in line to chair the panel as ranking Republican in the previous Congress, Jordan, R-Ohio, selected Massie, R-Ky., to lead the subcommittee this Congress instead. Buck, who has been a vocal critic of the tech giants for years, says tighter antitrust regulations would help create a fairer marketplace for smaller tech firms competing against Amazon, Google, Facebook and other Big Tech companies, which have been accused of using their platforms to promote their own proprietary products or services above competitors. When asked whether his campaign to rein in the tech giants through antitrust and his co-sponsoring of bills with Democrats may be what cost him the chairmanship of the antitrust panel, Buck said, "Nobody ever said that to me but I think it's a fair conclusion to draw."
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Apple, Amazon, Google Will Likely Get a Reprieve From GOP-Controlled House on Antitrust Legislation More

Apple, Amazon, Google Will Likely Get a Reprieve From GOP-Controlled House on Antitrust Legislation

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  • Big giant companies that have extensive lobbying (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Turkinolith ( 7180598 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @11:43AM (#63373189)
    Of course they will get a reprieve, their wealthy AF and have large numbers of lawyers. Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't give money to most of the people in congress.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 )

      Wouldn't surprise me if they didn't give money to most of the people in congress.

      No no no, that's not allowed. You can't be bipartisan on this issue. You need to identify who in congress they donated to, and then get outraged at them giving money to the people on the other side and call it corruption.

      • Re: Big giant companies that have extensive lobbyi (Score:4, Insightful)

        by fermion ( 181285 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @01:36PM (#63373553) Homepage Journal
        The fact is this is partisan. The republicans are focused on proving the Jan 6 terrorist a attack on the capital was simply peaceful tourist being brutally attack by overreacting police. This is why Tucker was given footage. They are also concerned with the fact that our president is part of a criminal organization lead by his son. And of course that men are allowed to wear dresses.

    • Republicans never cared about antitrust enforcement.They don't think monopolies are a bad thing. I don't think it's so much "lobbyists gave them money" but it's consistent with their right-wing values to ignore it and focus on idiotic culture war stuff.

      If it was simple as "rich corporations buy their way out of trouble" Disney wouldn't be having so much trouble with that lunatic DeSantis.

      • If it was simple as "rich corporations buy their way out of trouble" Disney wouldn't be having so much trouble with that lunatic DeSantis.

        The fact you wrote this demonstrates how well DeSantis's schemes actually work. The mainstream media does a terrible job with follow-up reporting, and DeSantis counts on it. The Republicans actually backed down from their earlier threats of dissolving Disney's special tax district and instead compromised on simply renaming it and appointing a board (made up mostly of donors to DeSantis's campaign, as if that comes as a surprise) to oversee the district. Disney still gets to keep the same taxing arrangeme

  • The checks have cleared (Score:3)

    by Inglix the Mad ( 576601 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @11:48AM (#63373207)
    Lobbyists told them the amount necessary, and they wrote the checks.

    Don't you love they made it legal to, in effect, bribe politicians? Remember when Boehner was chided for handing out tobacco industry checks on the House floor ahead of a vote? They made sure they'd never have to be that public again.

  • The Republican party (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @11:54AM (#63373219)
    isn't going to enforce anti-trust regulation? I'm shocked! Shocked! ... Ok, I'm not that shocked.

    This is what's driving inflation. Trusts. Wages were flat last quarter but inflation still went up. Why? Because we let monopolies form everywhere. Whether it's businesses passing higher advertising costs onto consumers or the 4 companies that collectively own 80% of the American Beef market or the fact that at best we've got 3 grocery stores in any given city vs the 8-10 I had when I was a lad or open collusion on pricing [arstechnica.com] we're paying more because rent seekers can charge whatever they want and our choices are homelessness and starvation or try to pay it. Hell, 80% of all *medical* facilities in Florida are owned by 1 company.

    Change for who and how you vote. And before the "both parties bad" types pile in, that's what primaries are for. I've had a solid pro consumer candidate in every single primary I've voted in for 16+ years now and they keep losing to corpos.

    Don't pay attention to ads & rallies. Google their policy positions, voting records and backgrounds.

    • This is what's driving inflation.

      I like how on every story you pick out a different ultimate cause for inflation. The funny part is when we sum up all the things you say in aggregate you're correct.

      Change for who and how you vote. And before the "both parties bad" types pile in, that's what primaries are for.

      No. Primaries do not change the party in any meaningful way. That's literally the point of party politics. You're given the choice between a select few corrupt cunts to choose from and you pick the one who you think will do the least damage.

      You are not represented in America, that is not unless you have the power and wealth to pick up the phone

      • I've been pretty consistent. Right now the cause is price gouging due to a lack of antitrust enforcement. If you go back months and months you'll find me talking about the war in Ukraine and if you go back even further you'll find me talking about supply chain issues. Both of those have been mitigated to the point where the primary driver inflation is price gouging due to monopolies

        And you didn't even bother to try and understand my comment. They're a good candidates who have your interests in mind duri

      • Change for who and how you vote. And before the "both parties bad" types pile in, that's what primaries are for.

        No. Primaries do not change the party in any meaningful way. That's literally the point of party politics. You're given the choice between a select few corrupt cunts to choose from and you pick the one who you think will do the least damage.

        You are not represented in America, that is not unless you have the power and wealth to pick up the phone and actually have a senator answer when it rings.

        Haven't you watched the GOP over the last 12 years?

        First the Tea Party movement meant that all their candidates went extreme fiscal conservatism or got primaried out of existence.

        Then the Trump movement meant that everyone went extreme pro-Trump or got primaried out of existence.

        The US 2-party system means that for the most part, politicians run in very safe systems. So the primaries are generally a practise of the most fervent members of a party choosing who will represent that district.

        Some of the GOP's m

    • This is what's driving inflation. Trusts.

      I agree entirely. Congress is all about chasing the wrong dogs up the wrong trees. Technology company combined abuses are absolutely insignificant compared to even one category of grocery, real estate, and fuel companies' massive abuses.

    • Anybody who expected this to be anything other than a government sanctioned shakedown hasn't been paying attention or alive long enough to know better.

      "Your business is engaging in anti-consumer practices, but we can be persuaded to look the other way if properly motivated."

      Microsoft learned this lesson the hard way.

  • Reliable source? (Score:3)

    by physicsphairy ( 720718 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @12:03PM (#63373259)

    I can't fault thinking the companies that always get a reprieve will continue to get a reprieve. But you can't take a speculative quote from the guy who just got spurned for the position he wanted on whether he thinks the other guy will do as good of a job, and present that as presumed fact.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      What's amusing is that this story was brought to us by CNBC, which is owned by Comcast. They're one of the biggest power abusing tech monopolies out there.

  • Those companies are pillars of usa soft power. Obviously politicians want them to flourish, it makes total sense.

    • Actually it is only the GOP politicians. Otherwise there are "efforts to rein in some of the companies' most controversial and allegedly anti-competitive business practices".

    • They don't understand the clear reality that if you overregulate the internet companies, they simply move all their servers overseas where you can't touch them or get any tax revenue from them!

  • if you have too many returns, use or buy too many gift cards, do charge backs and more, you take a chance of losing your amazon account. When this happens, you lose access to your gift card balance, any digital media and more. You will also lose access to audible, ring verification, kindle, alexa, fire tables and any other amazon properties that require amazon access. Now tell me that amazon don't need anti-trust action taken against it.

    • You're saying Amazon should be FORCED to continue doing business with the customers they are losing money on?

  • Here's an idea... (Score:3)

    by Archangel_Azazel ( 707030 ) on Wednesday March 15, 2023 @01:20PM (#63373489) Homepage Journal

    With every one of these stories, include how much each of those reps fit in campaign contributions. For visibility and all. Might get a few conversations started at least?

  • Somebody needs to spank Musk for what he's done to Twitter... or would he enjoy that? Hard to tell.

  • "Won't somebody think of the Children!" ... and protect the world from lawmakers such as this.

    Disappointed but not surprised. It's one thing to say me and my party can do better than the opponents, or any other alternatives. But, blocking potentially useful legislation and to justify it, blatantly by claiming to hinder someone else, is beyond criminal. I hope the voters get a chance to give this lizard a swift kick in the soft legislative areas.

    Yes, I know this (and by this i mean politics) happens in polit

  • ... to actually govern. Yep, we can't be bothered to actually improve our citizen's lives because heck, it's just so important to make sure Biden doesn't succeed.

  • The new Republican leadership in the U.S. House doesn't appear to have the appetite to impose tougher antitrust rules on the tech giants to ensure they don't abuse their dominant position in the market to block smaller rivals

    So, the Republicans will protect the big tech companies in their trust behavior because they want to protect the small (but big!) guys against the intrusions of big government. Yet, they want to punish the big techs for exercising trust behavior for being biased against conservatives. It's like the Republicans are everything, everywhere, all at once.

    The Republicans don't either like or dislike the big techs. They (as well as the Democrats) will do what they feel is in their best electoral interests.

    • It becomes a lot easier to understand the GOP's logic if you just assume their position on an issue will almost always be opposite of that of the Democrats.

  • The republican are selling our rights to them. Need them around to collect the money.

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