KLOBUCHAR: Legislation will establish “rules of the road to protect consumers and competitive businesses”

SCARBOROUGH: “This is a pro-entrepreneur...pro-small business… pro-free market bill"

WATCH KLOBUCHAR INTERVIEW HERE

WASHINGTON - On Morning Joe, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) highlighted how the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, her bipartisan legislation with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to restore competition online, will lower costs for consumers and level the playing field for small businesses. 

Klobuchar emphasized that her bipartisan legislation will establish “rules of the road to protect consumers and competitive businesses…when it comes to competition…We're looking at this in a uniquely American way to be able to continue the innovation but make very clear you've got to have competition in America.”

Joe Scarborough also praised the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, noting: “Let's be clear…. I want the government to be very careful in its regulatory schemes. But this is a pro-entrepreneur bill. This is a pro-small business bill. This is a pro-free market bill that actually allows small businesses, entrepreneurs, new people who want to enter into markets…the breathing space to do that without being crushed by monopolies.”

Scarborough further criticized the misleading falsehoods being perpetuated by Big Tech companies about the legislation, asserting: “We're seeing more and more advertisements and I'll just say to me it seems like just outright propaganda from these near monopolies…they're just coming out in full force with ridiculous propaganda.”

This strong support builds on growing momentum for the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. The legislation has been endorsed by small businesses organizations such as Main Street Alliance, Small Business Rising, The National Association of Wholesale Distributors, and the American Hotel and Lodging Association. 

Last month, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo expressed her backing of the legislation. In April, the Department of Justice voiced its strong endorsement of the legislation, encouraging Congress “to work to finalize this legislation and pass it into law.” 

Recently, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Service Employees International Union, and the Strategic Organizing Center sent a letter to Congressional leaders urging the legislation’s passage. The labor organizations wrote that the legislation “can and will help turn the tide in favor of working people, so they may share in the prosperity they help create every day…and help prevent these digital behemoths from…stifling the equality and fairness in the economy that workers so urgently need and deserve.” Additionally, a coalition of 58 non-profit and public policy organizations also wrote a letter endorsing the bill. 

The Washington Post Editorial Board and Boston Globe Editorial Board have also expressed their support for the legislation. 

In January, the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a bipartisan vote of 16-6, making it the first major bill on technology competition to advance to the Senate floor since the dawn of the Internet. 

In December, coalition of 35 small and medium tech companies including Yelp, Sonos, Patreon, Y Combinator, and DuckDuckGo urged the legislation’s passage, citing the need to “help restore competition in the digital marketplace and remove barriers for consumers to choose the services they want.”

In October, Klobuchar and Grassley introduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act to set commonsense rules of the road for major digital platforms to ensure they cannot unfairly preference their own products and services. Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ken Buck (R-CO) lead companion legislation in the House, which passed the House Judiciary Committee by a bipartisan vote of 24-20 last July. 

The Senate legislation is cosponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Mark Warner (D-VA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Excerpts from Klobuchar’s interview are given below. The interview is available for online viewing HERE

Scarborough: Senator, we've talked for sometime about antitrust legislation. You wrote a great book on antitrust. And we've talked a good deal about it. I'm curious what is the update? What is the progress on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act? I know that you're getting a lot of pushback - we're seeing more and more advertisements and I'll just say to me it seems like just outright propaganda from these near monopolies saying oh my god, this would hurt American competition, this would hurt American technology, and the latest, this would hurt people of color. I mean they're just coming out in full force with ridiculous propaganda. Where are you right now on this push? 

Klobuchar: Well, as you know, Joe, this is the first time since the advent of the Internet that we are advancing a competition bill when it comes to Big Tech which says a lot right there. These companies are over trillion dollar companies. They are monopolies. Google has a 90 percent market share on its platform. So, what we’re saying here is: yes, the Justice Department is looking at these monopolies; yes, I think we should do something on mergers and the like. But that’s not what this bill is about. This bill is a strongly bipartisan bill with Senator Grassley and Senator Graham and Senator Durbin and Cory Booker and Mark Warner and Josh Hawley and Mazie Hirono. I think Samantha Bee called it the Ocean's 11 of cosponsors. And what the bill does is it says if you're going to sell stuff on your own platforms, then you can't preference it over other competitive business products. Because that’s what they're doing. They're starting to buy thing after thing and basically outcompete, because they own the pipeline by which people are buying other competitors. That’s not fair capitalism. That’s when antitrust steps in. So we're one: getting an even playing field. Two: make sure you don't rip off by using non-public data, like the luggage organizer company in Brooklyn with four employees who submitted their plans to Amazon and the next thing you know they rip it off and put it on Amazon Prime. This is out of  Wall Street Journal reporting, so you can't do that. And the third thing is you can't require a bunch of small businesses to buy a bunch of stuff just for the privilege of getting near the top of the platform. So these are rules of the road to protect consumers and competitive businesses. And that’s why it’s gaining speed. And yes, they have shoved in just last week $21 million in an ad buy. They have thousands of lawyers and lobbyists. I have two lawyers working on this. They're really good. Chuck Grassley has two. David Cicilline and Buck I think combined have four. That’s what we’re dealing with, a strong bipartisan effort with a small and mighty crew that is taking them on. And I predict we’re going to win this but I have never seen anything like this. They are bullies, they're making stuff up, making things up left and right that aren't true. 

Scarborough: Let's be clear. As a conservative, I'm a conservative. I'm a free market guy. I believe in entrepreneurship. I want the government to be very careful in its regulatory schemes. But this is a pro-entrepreneur bill. This is a pro-small business bill. This is a pro-free market bill that actually allows small businesses, entrepreneurs, new people who want to enter into markets, this actually gives them the breathing space to do that without being crushed by monopolies. 

Klobuchar: Exactly. And they know it and they're doing everything to fight it - tooth and nail. But I'm so proud of our cosponsors. Senator Schumer has promised us a vote on this bill in the early summer, so that should be coming up quite soon. And I believe we're going to pass it. The House did an 18 month investigation that was bipartisan from the beginning about these gatekeeper companies. We don't want to destroy them. They're giving us great services. We just want to set rules of the road when it comes to competition. And other countries around the world are being much more aggressive than this. We're looking at this in a uniquely American way to be able to continue the innovation, but make very clear you've got to have competition in America. That is what built our country.

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