Senator Grassley and Members of Congress:
We appreciate your efforts and careful attention to antitrust and other competition related issues with technology companies. While we support antitrust scrutiny to promote competitive behavior, as long-time supporters of free markets and free expression, we are concerned to see drastic antitrust reform proposals that completely overlook consumer welfare and threaten to cause actual and irreparable harm to consumers.
Missing from the current conversation is the full and accurate consideration of the consumer benefits technology companies provide, and what would be lost by punishing their successes.
As a non-profit research organization representing consumers, we are concerned with recent proposals in which consumer welfare is largely ignored in favor of a presumption that “big tech” is automatically anti-consumer. These companies provide valuable services to hundreds of millions of American and global consumers.
Failing to recognize this will only deny consumers potential benefits and show they are not the pre-eminent concern in antitrust enforcement.
We look forward to supporting efforts to create strong, evidence-based proposals that benefit consumers and stand ready to assist in any way that is helpful. We welcome the opportunity to further discuss these views and relevant proposals or assessments.
Respectfully,
Krisztina Pusok
Director American Consumer Institute