# Plain Language Summary: American Innovation and Choice Online Act

This bill aims to prevent large tech companies from favoring their own products and services over competitors on their platforms. Specifically, it would stop companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta from giving preferential treatment to their own services when those companies also operate the marketplace or platform where other businesses sell their products.

Here's what that means in practice: If you use Amazon to buy products, Amazon couldn't secretly rank its own brand of products higher in search results than competing brands. If you search on Google, Google couldn't push its own services to the top while burying competitors' services lower. If you use Facebook's marketplace, Meta couldn't favor its own services over other companies trying to reach customers there. The bill would require these platforms to treat all businesses fairly, whether they're owned by the platform company or by outside competitors.

The law would apply to large tech platforms that have significant market power and control how products or services are displayed to consumers. Companies would face penalties if they violate these rules. The goal is to create a more level playing field for smaller businesses and startups that compete against these tech giants, while also giving consumers more genuine choices rather than having platforms steer them toward the platform owner's own products. Supporters argue this increases competition and innovation, while critics worry it could complicate how these platforms operate or affect their ability to maintain quality control.

American Innovation and Choice Online Act

Klobuchar, Amy

American Innovation and Choice Online Act This bill prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in specified acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application or enforcement of the platform's terms of service among similarly situated users. Further, a platform may not materially restrict or impede the capacity of a competing business user to access or interoperate with the same platform, operating system, or hardware or software features. The bill also restricts the platform's use of nonpublic data obtained from or generated on the platform and prohibits the platform from restricting access to platform data generated by the activity of a competing business user. The bill also provides additional restrictions related to installing or uninstalling software, search or ranking functionality, and retaliation for contact with law enforcement regarding actual or potential violations of law. The bill establishes affirmative defenses for the prohibited conduct. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice must designate whether an entity is a platform covered by the bill, and both must carry out enforcement activities. The bill also provides for civil penalties, injunctions, and the forfeit of profits for repeat offenders.