The Biden Administration took aim at tech companies with a new Executive Order. It urges 12 different federal agencies to aggressively regulate big business, including the FTC and Justice Department which have broad antitrust enforcement powers.
“The Order includes 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies to promptly tackle some of the most pressing competition problems across our economy. Once implemented, these initiatives will result in concrete improvements to people’s lives,” said the White House in its summary statement.
Many of these actions need agency action to implement, so much of the Order is directed at agencies and urging them to enact regulations.
While the Order encompasses a broad range of industries, including healthcare, agriculture, and financial services, here’s how it appears to impact the tech industry.
- Banning excessive early termination fees for internet service
- Requires clear disclosure of plan costs to facilitate comparison shopping
- Ending landlord exclusivity preventing tenants from using alternate internet services
The Order also encourages the FCC to restore net neutrality rules.
There is also action aimed at reigning in big tech, including the possibility of rolling back previously approved mergers and addresses data privacy.
Pres. Biden announced an Administration policy of “greater scrutiny of mergers, especially by dominant internet platforms, with particular attention to the acquisition of nascent competitors, serial mergers, the accumulation of data, competition by ‘free’ products, and the effect on user privacy.”
The Order encourages the FTC to establish rules barring unfair methods of competition and rules on surveillance and accumulation of data by big tech.
“Over the past 10 years, the largest tech platforms have acquired hundreds of companies — including alleged ‘killer acquisitions’ meant to shut down a potential competitive threat,” according to the White House statement. “Too often, federal agencies have not blocked, conditioned, or, in some cases, meaningfully examined these acquisitions.”
The Administration also called out dominant retail marketplaces.
“The large platforms’ power gives them unfair opportunities to get a leg up on the small businesses that rely on them to reach customers. For example, companies that run dominant online retail marketplaces can see how small businesses’ products sell and then use the data to launch their own competing products. Because they run the platform, they can also display their own copycat products more prominently than the small businesses’ products.” – White House Statement.