FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For media inquiries, please contact: Reggie Rucker, ILSR Communications Director
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 16, 2023) –The following statement was issued by Stacy Mitchell, Co-Executive Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, in response to Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) reintroducing the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) in the U.S. Senate:
“ILSR has long advocated for Congress to rein in the extraordinary power of the Big Tech platforms. We are pleased Senator Klobuchar and Senator Grassley reintroduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which is an important piece of legislation that would prohibit the tech giants from preferencing their own products and business lines.
”But this is only one step toward unlocking the control the Big Tech giants have over the digital marketplace. We are dismayed that Congress has yet to enact even these basic and obvious safeguards, even as the need for policymakers to dismantle the dangerous degree of structural power the tech giants have amassed only grows more urgent.
“Amazon derives much of its power to bully and exploit other businesses from its integration across business lines and the fact that it plays multiple roles in markets. Because of this, we have long advocated for policies that would break up Amazon and the other tech monopolies along business lines.
“We urge Congress to expeditiously take up and pass AICOA and we look forward to the continued leadership of Senators Klobuchar and Grassley to check the outsize power of Big Tech.”
In 2019, Mitchell testified before the House antitrust subcommittee as part of the investigation that led to the development of AICOA and other legislative proposals on Big Tech. For more on ILSR’s Amazon work, go here.
Follow Stacy Mitchell and ILSR on Twitter for continued commentary on this and other antitrust issues.
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About the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a national nonprofit research and educational organization founded in 1974. ILSR has a vision of thriving, diverse, equitable communities. To reach this vision, we build local power to fight corporate control. We believe that democracy can only thrive when economic and political power is widely dispersed. Whether it’s fighting back against the outsize power of monopolies like Amazon or advocating to keep local renewable energy in the community that produced it, ILSR advocates for solutions that harness the power of citizens and communities.
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