Big Tech companies like Amazon and Google, which run online marketplaces, engage in practices that are biased against small businesses, which lack bargaining power and alternative choices. For small business sellers using marketplace platforms, competition between the operator’s own products and third-party sellers creates conflicts of interest and has been shown to lead to unfair business practices.

On Nov. 17, 2022, NFIB members Mark Faulkner and Deeannah Seymour made the case for Big Tech antitrust legislation in front of a U.S. Senate briefing and explained their concerns in brief video testimonies. NFIB also hosted a virtual briefing with a panel of five small business owners and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) who was a principal U.S. House author of the House of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (H.R. 3816, 117th Congress). Each of the five panelists spoke to their experience using big tech across a variety of platforms.

In an NFIB member ballot, 84% of NFIB members favor Congress taking legislative action to control dishonest and anticompetitive practices of large tech companies.

S. 2033, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, introduced in the Senate on June 15, 2023, would ensure equality for small businesses and options for consumers. NFIB supports preventing companies like Amazon and Google from engaging in practices such as promoting their products over higher reviewed products from a small business and adding accountability so small business owners can trust their products will be sold impartially.