The Big Tech Self ‐​Preferencing Panic

Ryan Bourne and Brad SubramaniamPoliticians are working themselves into a frenzy about major online platforms “self‐​preferencing” their own products. Apparently, it’s bad a thing that your iPhone comes with FaceTime pre ‐​installed, or that Amazon sells Basics yoga mats that it prioritizes in search rankings to compete with other generics on Marketplace.Senator Elizabeth Warren summarized the simplistic unease about platforms preferencing their own products best when she claimed “You can be the umpire, or you can be a player, but you can ’t be both.” Despite this naïve view going against the economic consensus of the past four decades, legislation in Congress now seeks to enforce openness and neutrality on a host of online platforms by limiting self ‐​preferencing.Senator Amy Klobuchar ’sAmerican Innovation and Choice Online Act would generally make it unlawful for an online big tech platform to preference its own goods, limit business users from competing with its products, or discriminate in its terms of service in ways that would “materially harm competition.”Companies covered would not be able to restrict business users from interoperating with software open to the platform ’s own products, use third‐​party sales data to improve their own products, or treat their own products favorably in search rankings.(Yes, if the business can prove their conduct is essential to protecting security, privacy, or a core platf...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs