US lawmakers, wary of Big Tech, mull antitrust overhaul

US lawmakers, wary of Big Tech, mull antitrust overhaul

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers unveiled sweeping antitrust measures Friday aimed at tempering the dominance of Big Tech firms including Apple and Facebook, in what may be the most ambitious effort in decades to break corporate monopolies. A bipartisan group of House members introduced five separate bills that propose changes so comprehensive they could reshape the largest US technology and entertainment companies and force an overhaul of their business practices.

In a bid to ward off corporate consolidation, the measures would make it harder for mega-companies like Amazon and Google to buy out smaller competitors, and facilitate the breakup of firms that use their dominant position in their core business to make deep inroads into another.

"Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,“ the House Judiciary's Antitrust Subcommittee chairman David Cicilline, a Democrat, said in introducing the measures. "They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work.“

The goal, he said, is to "level the playing field“ and ensure that powerful tech companies follow the same rules as other businesses. The bills follow a 16-month investigation by the Antitrust Subcommittee into the state of competition