Gene Kimmelman House Judiciary Testimony on Online Platforms and Market Power

Given the important role large digital platforms play in virtually every aspect of our economy and democracy, we welcome the House Judiciary Committee’s decision to launch an investigation into competition in digital platforms. As a few companies have grown to increasingly dominate key elements of the digital marketplace, this investigation is very timely and necessary.

Just as this committee and the Energy & Commerce Committee engaged in economic marketplace analysis through extensive hearings and legislative deliberations in the 1980s and 90s, seeking to understand potential market disruptions in the telecommunications and media industries, it is now appropriate to do the same in the digital marketplace. We hope the Committee will focus on information gathering to determine the ways in which the market is not performing optimally and identify what legal changes are necessary. We believe that strong antitrust enforcement and updated understanding of market dynamics can address many competitive shortcomings. However antitrust alone cannot maximize competition and sustain the democracy to which we aspire. Congress must do more to address these challenges.