Over the past year, lawmakers in the United States and Europe have turned their attention to cracking down on big tech through reforming antitrust laws. Both Democrats and Republicans have offered competing visions of reforms that would see a departure from the consumer welfare standard as the basis for antitrust law and a return to a “big is bad” mentality. Last December, the European Union Commission proposed its own slate of regulations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that could have wide-ranging consequences for consumers on both sides of the Atlantic. Given the desire of both parties in the United States to crack down on big tech, it is not unreasonable to presume the Congress will consider its own version of DMA, following Europe's bureaucratic and punitive approach to antitrust.
Under the DMA, tech companies could be classified as gatekeepers if "for three consecutive years [they] reach a threshold in turnover or market capitalization of $7.9 billion, provides its service in at least three E.U. countries, and has 10 percent of the E.U. population as monthly active users and at least 10,000 active annual business users." If classified as a gatekeeper, companies would be restricted from sharing data between their various platforms and comply with non-discrimination standards that would ban self-preferencing and require them to offer services equally to all users.
Read Full Article »