‘Monopolies Must Go’: Tech Giants Feel Rivals’ Antitrust Wrath

(Bloomberg) -- Tonight commuters leaving Capitol Hill will be greeted with a light show projecting a message cast onto buildings: “Monopolies must go.”

The art installation is part of a campaign dubbed “Antitrust Day” to encourage lawmakers to advance tech-focused regulations before a window closes to vote the measures into law.

Companies including Yelp Inc., Match Group Inc., and Spotify Technology SA are urging users to write their representatives encouraging them to pass laws in a package of bills designed to curb the power of giant internet companies.

The coalition is focusing on two pieces of legislation -- the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. The first would open up app stores operated by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google, while the second is designed to prevent large internet platforms like Amazon.com Inc. from giving priority to their own products and services.

More than 100 companies and think tanks are participating in the action organized in part by Fight for the Future, which coordinated online protests in favor of net neutrality in 2012. Advocacy groups involved include the Electronic Frontier Foundation, MoveOn, and Public Knowledge, which was founded by Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn. President Joe Biden's adviser on technology and competition policy, Tim Wu, also tweeted support.

The Justice Department's antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter wished viewers a “Happy Antitrust Day” during a speech at an enforcers' summit Monday. Last week, the Justice Department formally voiced support for the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would prohibit dominant platforms from giving an advantage to their own products, such as Google Maps or Apple Music.

Lobbying around the tech-focused antitrust bills is peaking as the window closes for major legislation before the start of midterm campaigns. Two more lobbying events are planned this week by pro-industry coalitions opposed to new antitrust legislation.

NetChoice, which is funded by firms including Amazon and Google, dubbed Monday “Defend America's Competitive Edge Day,” and plans to lead industry and civil society groups to meet with lawmakers and lobby against the bills. Later in the week, TechNet, which represents a similar roster of the largest tech firms, will be meeting with lawmakers to support the semiconductor funding bill, federal privacy legislation, and oppose the antitrust bills.

“The conflict in Ukraine, a Supreme Court vacancy, energy policy, and so forth have all understandably been priorities for lawmakers in the last month,” said Matt Fossen of Proton AG, which makes encrypted email and VPN services. “We see this week as a particularly good window to put competition back on everyone's radar, especially as we move toward potential votes later in the spring or the summer.”