Today, the American Consumer Institute (ACI) released a policy brief highlighting the potential impact the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) would have on big tech.
This brief comes in response to the growing prominence of techlash in America and Congress’ consideration of bills that seek to ban and/or limit self-preferencing for select categories of companies. While all targeted platforms would be impacted, the report specifically focuses on Amazon, as the proposed legislation would target the underlying mechanism through which Amazon provides many of its consumer benefits.
The goal of the brief is to send a clear warning to lawmakers about the potential consequences of their decisions.
By attempting to ban self-preferencing, a common practice across most industries, policymakers disregard economic theory, empirical evidence, and commonsense. Through self-preferencing Amazon has been able to expand services, guarantee fast delivery, and save its consumers an average of $646 per annual membership. This policy brief speaks directly to how the AICOA, if passed, would undermine the mechanism through which Amazon provides many of these benefits and how consumers would be impacted.
You can read the report here.