The House's Antitrust Legislative Package: An Innovation Perspective
GAICIL Insights
In June 2021 the House Antitrust Subcommittee announced a package of bills on digital markets. The analysis finds that four of them would regulate firms by size rather than conduct, creating unfair competition, stifling innovation and favoring Chinese rivals.
It suggests targeted amendments to the two remaining bills. Size-based thresholds are reappearing in AI proposals, which makes this analysis directly relevant.
Abstract
The goal of antitrust reform should be to advance a modern approach to competition policy that elevates innovation to become a central concern for antitrust enforcement.1
Conclusion
There is little chance that Congress could amend those bills sufficiently enough to redeem their flaws. Lawmakers should instead reject them.
At the end of the day, as the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) articulated in its June 2021 report “Principles of Dynamic Antitrust,” the goal of antitrust reform should be to advance a modern approach to competition policy that elevates innovation to become a central concern for antitrust enforcement.
Takeaway: The goal of antitrust reform should be to advance a modern approach to competition policy that elevates innovation to become a central concern for antitrust enforcement.
Conclusion quoted verbatim from the report.
Notes
- Aurelien Portuese, The House's Antitrust Legislative Package: An Innovation Perspective (Info. Tech. & Innovation Found., Aug. 2, 2021), https://itif.org/publications/2021/08/02/houses-antitrust-legislative-package-innovation-perspective/. Summary quoted verbatim from the ITIF publication page, https://itif.org/publications/2021/08/02/houses-antitrust-legislative-package-innovation-perspective/. ↩
Cite as: Aurelien Portuese, The House's Antitrust Legislative Package: An Innovation Perspective (Info. Tech. & Innovation Found., Aug. 2, 2021), https://itif.org/publications/2021/08/02/houses-antitrust-legislative-package-innovation-perspective/
Header image: Rayburn House Office Building Rhyton sculptures Washington D.C. 1978.jpg by Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
