Tech Companies and Civil Society are Coming Together for a Day of Action
“Antitrust Day” Will Encourage Consumers to Act and Reclaim Their Right to Choice Online
March 23rd, 2022 – With bipartisan tech antitrust bills moving in Congress, a coalition of small and medium sized technology companies, and civil society organizations are launching a new campaign, “Antitrust Day” to garner support. In addition to sending a letter to Congress asking them to vote in favor of the bills, the coalition is calling on the public to combine their voices on April 4th by contacting their federal representatives and urging them to vote “yes” on these bills to restore competition, innovation, and choice online.
See the page here: AntitrustDay.org
The coalition is made up of companies like Yelp, Basecamp, and DuckDuckGo, and trade associations like Coalition for App Fairness who will be driving users to Fight for the Future’s campaign page where they can directly contact federal policymakers. The companies, which are listed on the campaign page, will take various approaches to reach their users. For example, DuckDuckGo will link a call-to-action on its search engine results page and Yelp will place prominent links to the campaign page from yelp.com and the company’s mobile apps. Civil society organizations, like Consumer Reports, Demand Progress, Public Knowledge, and EFF will also be activating initiatives within their communities and amplifying the importance of this moment. In addition, there will be a variety of events leading up to the day of action to raise awareness. The coalition is also inviting and encouraging other companies and civil society to join in on the effort. Reports from the United States and governments around the world reveal that a few large technology companies are abusing their dominant positions in the market to undermine competition, to the detriment of consumers and innovation. The antitrust bills would bar many of the anticompetitive tactics employed by these companies, helping to restore competition in the market, and ensure that consumers are unencumbered in choosing the services they want.
Evan Greer, director of Fight for the Future
“Big Tech companies have too much power. And they’re abusing that power in ways that undermine human rights and pose an existential threat to democracy. The Open Apps Market Act is an essential bill that ensures people have the basic right to choose what software they run on devices they own, and it pushes back on restrictive app store policies that have been a convenient censorship choke point for authoritarian governments. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act is a common sense measure to prevent the largest tech companies from stifling competition. These bills enjoy broad bipartisan support. It’s time for House and Senate leadership to do their jobs and move these bills to the floor.”
Luther Lowe, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, Yelp
“A bipartisan, overwhelming majority of Americans support strengthening our antitrust laws. It is time for Congress to pass narrowly tailored legislation to curb the most egregious forms of self-dealing by Big Tech. These reforms are long overdue.”
Katie McInnis, Senior Public Policy Manager, DuckDuckGo
“For too long, dominant tech companies like Google have employed anti-competitive tactics to stifle rivals and protect their status in the digital market. These self-preferencing tactics harm competition as well as consumers, as they deprive us of the innovations a competitive market would bring and make it hard for users to choose the services they want. It is time for Congress to help restore competition by acting on bills like the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.”
David Heinemeier Hansson, Chief Technology Office, Basecamp
“The big antitrust movement finally seems to be before us, and it’s not a minute too soon. We simply can’t spend another decade in darkness under the shadow of monopoly power. Basecamp has been along for the fight since Representatives Buck and Cicilline held their big-tech hearings a couple of years ago, and we’re here to support turning those findings into law.”
Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO and Co-Founder, Neeva
“For too long, Big Tech has exploited consumer data, abused market share, taxed small businesses, and stifled competition to remain the most powerful gatekeepers to our entire online experience. Contrary to what most people think, the biggest challenge to competing in search with a company like Google is not engineering, innovation, or capital but rather fair and equitable access to the market. It’s long overdue for Washington to act, and this bipartisan legislation will meaningfully rein in Big Tech’s anticompetitive behavior leading to a new era of competition and technological innovation.”
Rick VanMeter, Executive Director, Coalition for App Fairness
“Dominant tech companies have used their monopoly power to disadvantage rivals through tactics that harm competition and reduce consumer choice. Passing bipartisan bills like the Open App Markets Act would help consumers and app developers by promoting open and fair competition in the digital marketplace. The Coalition for App Fairness is proud to join this diverse group of organizations and stands with them urging Congress to consider legislation that would address the anticompetitive practices of big tech gatekeepers.”
Rich Stables, CEO of shopping comparison site, Kelkoo Group“Big Tech’s self-preferencing has forced small businesses to operate within a straitjacket, with some going to the wall as a result. Google’s playbook of ‘delay delay delay’ as seen in Europe and playing god with people’s livelihoods has to end. Today’s campaign launch is the strongest possible statement to monopolists who persist in promoting their own services and demoting competitors: equal treatment should be a basic principle, with competitors allowed the same opportunities as Google, and we will continue to fight until this is a reality. When this happens, consumers win too – with more choice and lower prices. The U.S is a key global market for commerce and innovation and we look forward to a brighter future for small businesses – and for the American Dream to become a reality again.”
Sumit Sharma, Senior Researcher, Consumer Reports
“The fair market rules proposed in S.2992 and S.2710 will mean consumers can more easily choose, install, and use alternative apps and online services; mix and match services from different providers; and break out of closed product ecosystems. The bills will allow permissionless technology innovation by all, not just the largest platforms, and provide the economic space for innovators and consumers to experiment with alternative business models and ways for paying for services. This increased competition and innovation will bring many benefits like enabling consumers to choose services that better match their needs and budget without compromising on privacy and security.”
Maria Langholz, Communications Director, Demand Progress
“We are approaching a make-or-break moment for revitalizing our democracy and restoring fair competition to our economy. Congress has has a critical role to play in modernizing antitrust enforcement to rein in the power of modern-day monopolies like Amazon and Facebook/Meta. We are mobilizing our members on this day of action because the window for reining in Big Tech’s dominance may soon be closing. Action cannot wait.”
Charlotte Slaiman, Competition Policy Director at Public Knowledge
“We no longer have an internet that is open enough for two college kids in a garage to start The Next Big Thing. Consumers are frustrated by the same old internet products and yearning for innovative alternatives. We need pro-competition reforms to open up digital platforms so they actually have to compete.”
Nicole Gill, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Accountable Tech
“Big Tech corporations have used small business owners as a shield against reform, avoiding accountability for too long. The truth is that every time the U.S. has enacted substantive antitrust legislation consumers have benefited, small businesses have grown, innovation has been strengthened, and competition has thrived. It is long past time to rein in Big Tech.”
Deji Olukotun, Director of Policy & Corporate Social Responsibility at Sonos
“These are the right bills to support innovation and level the playing field for independent companies. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S.B. 2992) will lead to healthy competition, better products and more choice for consumers.”
Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, The Tech Oversight Project
“No matter your issue with Big Tech — whether it’s their anti-competitive actions, misuse of people’s private data, targeting of children, or unwillingness to prevent the spread of disinformation on their platforms — the way to hold them accountable is through antitrust reform. This bipartisan legislation shows Big Tech monopolies that bad behavior will not go unpunished.”
Contact: For press inquiries: Evan Greer, 978-852-6457, press@fightforthefuture.org