Antitrust in the United States has evolved over time as we learn from cases and research. Reforms should enhance competition to make our economy stronger and consumers better off. Unfortunately, a package of bills approved by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year, along with companion bills introduced more recently by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D–MN) and Chuck Grassley (R–IA) and by Klobuchar and Tom Cotton (R–AR), would do exactly the opposite.
If these bills become law, consumers would almost certainly lose access to many popular and routinely used online services, while others would become less useful. For example, if you like being able to buy both independent retailer and Amazon products on Amazon’s platform, you might be out of luck. Amazon might have to choose between its third-party platform business and its Amazon-branded business. Either way, prices would be higher, choices fewer, and consumers would lose. So, likely, would many small companies that built their businesses on the Amazon platform.
