I. The Much-Changed Digital and Economic Landscape
In early June, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Charles Grassley introduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA, S.2992). Like its predecessor, introduced four years ago, AICOA attempts to restrain practices by large online platform owners that limit competition — both on their platforms and between competing platforms.
Since AICOA 1.0 was introduced in 2022, however, much has happened. The courts have handed down key decisions in a number of U.S. federal and state digital tech antitrust cases. Artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded, and digital regulation in Europe continues to be controversial.
Yet AICOA 2.0 picks up where its predecessor, AICOA 1.0, left off. This disconnect makes it uncomfortably clear that the authors are aiming to support the agenda of anti-monopoly activists in targeting the digital sector, rather than helping consumers contend with high prices for food, healthcare, and housing.
II. AICOA’s Authors and Sponsors Aren’t Reading the Room on Consumers
The U.S. is facing one of the biggest cost-of-living crises in history. AICOA 2.0’s expansive applicability to digital market players and potential for disrupting the U.S. antitrust enforcement system has enormous implications for consumers.
For example, enforcement of AICOA 2.0 is guaranteed to divert massive, scarce antitrust resources toward enforcement in digital markets. That means resources will (necessarily) be taken away from enforcement in other sectors, including food, healthcare, energy, and housing, where serious market power problems drive up consumer prices and reduce choice and innovation.
The failure of the bill’s sponsors and co-sponsors to read the room on the problems facing American consumers could become a political liability. The high probability that voters will take to the polls in November with cost-of-living issues top of mind may explain why AICOA 2.0 has far fewer co-sponsors, both Democrat and Republican, than AICOA 1.0.
