Bust Up Big Tech Act

II 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1204 To promote competition in digital markets, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 19, 2021 Mr. HAWLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation A BILL To promote competition in digital markets, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bust Up Big Tech 4 Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. STRUCTURAL SEPARATION REQUIREMENTS FOR 6 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS. 7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 8 (1) BACK-END ONLINE SERVICES.—The term 9 ‘‘back-end online services’’ means third-party inter- 10 net infrastructure services, including domain name 11 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 1204 IS resolution services, DDoS and other cyber threat 1 mitigation services, content delivery networks and 2 other load management techniques, and internet 3 backbone networks. 4 (2) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 5 means the Federal Trade Commission. 6 (3) COVERED PERSON.—The term ‘‘covered 7 person’’— 8 (A) means a person that is in the business 9 of offering an online platform to connect third 10 parties to an online marketplace, exchange, or 11 search engine which— 12 (i) in any month during the most re- 13 cently completed 12-month period— 14 (I) more than 30,000,000 users 15 in the United States accessed, without 16 regard to the means by which the 17 users accessed the service; or 18 (II) more than 300,000,000 19 users worldwide accessed, without re- 20 gard to the means by which the users 21 accessed the service; and 22 (ii) during the most recently com- 23 pleted taxable year, had more than 24 $1,500,000,000 in global revenue; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 1204 IS (B) does not include an organization de- 1 scribed in section 501(c) of the Internal Rev- 2 enue Code of 1986 that is exempt from taxation 3 under section 501(a) of such Code. 4 (4) ONLINE HOSTING.—The term ‘‘online 5 hosting’’ means a service or set of services that pro- 6 vide processing, storage, or other computational re- 7 sources that are used to implement any or all func- 8 tions of any public or private internet-based services 9 administered by third parties. 10 (5) ONLINE PLATFORM.—The term ‘‘online 11 platform’’ means any publicly accessible online elec- 12 tronic medium that enables 1 or more users to view, 13 generate, or modify content that can be viewed, 14 shared, or otherwise interacted with by other third- 15 party users of the medium. 16 (b) PROHIBITIONS.— 17 (1) ONLINE SALES PLATFORM.— 18 (A) IN GENERAL.—A covered person may 19 not sell, advertise, or otherwise promote goods 20 and services of the covered person on an online 21 platform owned or operated by the covered com- 22 pany. 23 (B) TARGETED PROHIBITION ON AFFILI- 24 ATES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 1204 IS enactment of this Act, any affiliation, common 1 ownership, or control by a covered person of an 2 entity that operates, sells, or advertises goods 3 and services on the online platform of the cov- 4 ered person shall be terminated or otherwise 5 liquidated. 6 (C) TARGETED PROHIBITION ON ACQUISI- 7 TIONS.—A covered person shall not acquire or 8 hold a controlling interest in any entity that 9 would sell, advertise, or otherwise promote 10 goods and services on an online platform owned 11 or operated by the covered person. 12 (2) ONLINE HOSTING AND BACK-END ONLINE 13 SERVICES.— 14 (A) IN GENERAL.—A covered person may 15 not provide online hosting services or back-end 16 online services to any other entity that is not 17 owned by the covered person. 18 (B) TARGETED PROHIBITION ON AFFILI- 19 ATES.—Not later than 1 year after the date of 20 enactment of this Act, any affiliation, common 21 ownership, or control by a covered person of an 22 entity that provides online hosting or back-end 23 online services to another entity not owned by 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 1204 IS the covered company shall be terminated or oth- 1 erwise liquidated. 2 (C) TARGETED PROHIBITION ON ACQUISI- 3 TIONS.—A covered person may not acquire or 4 hold a controlling interest in any entity that 5 provides online hosting or back-end online serv- 6 ices not owned by the covered company. 7 (3) EXCEPTION.—Paragraphs (1) and (2) shall 8 not apply to the operation of an online platform for 9 any person that exclusively sells, advertises, or oth- 10 erwise promotes the goods and services of the per- 11 son. 12 (c) AUTHORITY OF THE COMMISSION.—The Commis- 13 sion may— 14 (1) hire sufficient staff (whether on a part-time, 15 full-time, or contract basis) to monitor compliance 16 with subsection (b); and 17 (2) design and supervise annual audits for each 18 covered person to ensure compliance with this Act 19 and the amendments made by this Act. 20 (d) ENFORCEMENT BY STATE ATTORNEYS GEN- 21 ERAL.— 22 (1) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the at- 23 torney general of a State has reason to believe that 24 an interest of the residents of that State has been 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 1204 IS or is threatened or adversely affected by the engage- 1 ment of any entity in a practice that violates sub- 2 section (b), the State, as parens patriae, may bring 3 a civil action on behalf of the residents of the State 4 in a district court of the United States or a State 5 court of appropriate jurisdiction to— 6 (A) enjoin that practice; 7 (B) enforce compliance with such section; 8 (C) on behalf of residents of the State, ob- 9 tain damages, statutory damages, restitution, or 10 other compensation, each of which shall be dis- 11 tributed in accordance with State law; or 12 (D) obtain such other relief as the court 13 may consider to be appropriate. 14 (2) REQUIREMENT.—Before filing an action 15 under paragraph (1), the attorney general of the 16 State involved shall submit to the Commission— 17 (A) written notice of that action; and 18 (B) a copy of the complaint for that ac- 19 tion. 20 (e) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any person who suffers an 22 injury as a result of an act or practice of a covered 23 person in violation of subsection (b) may bring a 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 1204 IS civil action against the covered person in any court 1 of competent jurisdiction. 2 (2) RELIEF.—In a civil action under paragraph 3 (1) in which the plaintiff prevails, the court may 4 award the plaintiff not more than $1,000,000 per 5 each violation per plaintiff. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:40 May 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1204.IS S1204 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS