In an example of somewhat smaller tech going after bigger tech, Yelp and DuckDuckGo are joining with civil society groups to hold an Antitrust Day April 4.

That is according to one of those groups, Fight for the Future, which is fighting for a future with stronger antitrust rules for Big Tech.

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Both the Biden Administration and legislators on both sides of the aisle have drilled down on the largest tech platforms and whether they have been able to buy up to dominance or virtual monopoly by gobbling up potential competitors before the deals are big enough to raise red flags. Critics of those efforts have argued that basically describes the tech startup path to champagne-popping exits and would discourage both those startups and the venture capital that powers it.

In addition to signing on to a letter to Congress supporting various Big Tech targeted bills, the groups will join their voices April 4 to urge yes votes on bills they said will "restore competition, innovation, and choice online."

Participating groups including Consumer Reports, Demand Progress, Public Knowledge, and EFF will also be backing various related initiatives to "amplify" Antitrust Day.

"Reports from the United States and governments around the world reveal that a few large technology companies are abusing their dominant positions in the market to undermine competition, to the detriment of consumers and innovation," said the groups. "The antitrust bills would bar many of the anticompetitive tactics employed by these companies, helping to restore competition in the market, and ensure that consumers are unencumbered in choosing the services they want."

“A bipartisan, overwhelming majority of Americans support strengthening our antitrust laws," said Luther Lowe, senior VP of public policy for Yelp. "It is time for Congress to pass narrowly tailored legislation to curb the most egregious forms of self-dealing by Big Tech. These reforms are long overdue.”

Some of the proposed bills would prevent future buy-ups, but also potentially retroactively break up some past combinations, as well as seek hefty civil penalties for violators. ■

Yelp! SVP public policy Luther Lowe joined the Capitol Hill call for the Justice Department not to restrict its investigation of Google to the ad market. 

Lowe was carrying that message to a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing audience Tuesday (March 10) from Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp CEO, who had to stay back in San Francisco to handle "operational issues" related to the coronavirus outbreak--Lowe did not elaborate. 

The hearing was on "Self-Preferencing by Digital Platforms," which Yelp suggested fit Google to a T. 

Yelp was responding to reports that Justice was focusing on Google's ad market dominance rather than its search dominance, the same focus that concerned a bipartisan pair of senators, Antitrust Subcommittee member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who  teamed up to tell Attorney General William Barr that Justice had to look at search as well as the ad market in its Google inquiry.

"There have been concerning reports that the state attorneys general and the DOJ are pursuing incredibly narrow theories of harm in their respective Google investigations, only looking at advertising technology," said Lowe. "I believe making the focus too narrow would be a grave mistake. You can't look at Standard Oil without looking at oil; you cannot investigate Google without looking at search. That is what makes today's hearing — on the self-serving bias of companies like Google — so important. Dominant internet platforms like Google enjoy enormous market power." 

He alleged Google used that power to bias search and hurt consumers and spent pages of his written testimony making Yelp's case that antitrust intervention was necessary. 

That came the same day that Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen signaled to a Free State Foundation audience that its investigation into dominant online players could lead to a shakeup or breakup along the lines of an AT&T or Microsoft if the conclusion was that they were using that dominance anticompetitively.  

At the hearing, Hawley agreed with Lowe. He said while they are told the Google's value is its algorithmic relevance determination and it turns out it is manipulating those to preference its own content" and actively misleading consumers.