Big Tech Has Spent $36 Million on Ads to Torpedo Antitrust Bill

Much of the tech industry spending—$13.7 million, or almost 40%—has come since May 1, ahead of a possible floor vote this summer on the bill, which has bipartisan support.

The spending marks one of the biggest ad campaigns by the powerful tech industry in recent years and reflects its fear of the disruptive potential of tougher antitrust laws.

“This is without question one of the most significant campaigns the association has embarked on in recent years, because it’s one of the most radical policy proposals to regulate a leading sector of the U.S. economy,” said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which has spent more than $23 million, the most of any group.

CCIA didn’t disclose which companies provided funding for its ad campaign, saying only that “the association is funding the campaign.” CCIA lists

Alphabet Inc.’s

Google,

Amazon.com Inc.,

Apple Inc.

and

Meta Platforms Inc.’s

Facebook among its members.

CCIA’s ads have included mentions of Amazon as well as Google and “your phone.”

The bill targets dominant tech platforms, including Amazon’s e-commerce site, Google’s search engine, Apple’s App Store and Facebook.

Those companies have been working for months to stop or alter the bill, deploying teams of lobbyists and top executives to Washington. The $36.4 million spent by groups opposing the legislation dates back to Jan. 1, 2021.

Google’s voluntary disclosure of its memberships for 2021 includes CCIA. Amazon also disclosed that it made payments of $10,000 or more to CCIA in 2021.

Many of the ads are running in lawmakers’ home states and districts. They aim to convince voters that easing antitrust standards would contribute to inflation, weaken America’s hand versus China or hurt consumers and small businesses by disrupting popular online services such as Amazon Prime or Google Maps.

Sponsors led by Sens.

Amy Klobuchar

(D., Minn.) and

Chuck Grassley

(R., Iowa) held a press conference on Wednesday to push back on the campaign, saying it is distorting the bill’s impacts.

“We’re confronted with these big tech companies spending tens of millions of dollars on ads and also on front groups to spread falsehoods about our bill,” Mr. Grassley said. “Obviously they want to protect the status quo, which allows them to expand their influence.”

Ms. Klobuchar insisted the bill has the necessary votes to succeed on the Senate floor. “We have momentum despite all the money being spent against us,” she said.

The bill passed a Senate committee earlier this year on a bipartisan basis, although some supporters said at the time that they wanted changes.

It “is specifically designed to target a small number of specific companies, most of which are headquartered in my home state,” Sen.

Dianne Feinstein

(D., Calif.) said at the time.

Supporters, including some smaller technology companies, contend the platforms’ dominant position gives them unchecked power to influence the fate of other businesses. They say restricting the platforms’ conduct would carry significant benefits.

The bill was endorsed by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.

Amazon, Google and Apple say the legislation would make it harder to offer popular services, and that it is fair for e-marketplaces, search engines and app stores to profit off their own innovations.

Meta Platforms hasn’t taken a public position on the Senate legislation, and a spokesman declined to comment.

Senate Majority Leader

Chuck Schumer

(D., N.Y.) hasn’t publicly committed to holding a vote on the bill. However, Mr. Schumer recently told Ms. Klobuchar and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) that he intends to bring it up for a vote on the Senate floor early this summer, a Democratic aide familiar with the conversation said.

The ad-campaign spending has largely been divided among industry trade groups such as CCIA and the Consumer Technology Association, as well as conservative-leaning groups such as Taxpayers Protection Alliance and NetChoice.

“Washington politicians have a law that could break Prime’s guaranteed two-day free delivery and threaten our fragile economic recovery,” said one ad by CCIA, referring to Amazon’s fee-based membership program. “Tell your senators, don’t break our Prime.”

CCIA touts research suggesting that its ad campaign already has cut into public support for the antitrust crackdown.

Other industry-backed ads focus on what opponents say would be the bill’s impact on small businesses and national security.

“The left’s radical liberal bill would take away the digital tools small businesses rely on, empower China to beat America in the race for new technologies, and increase the risk of cyberattacks. Why would Senate conservatives support this dangerous bill?” says an ad from Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Tech companies are hoping to cement opposition to the bill among Republicans, who generally oppose toughening of antitrust laws but have often complained that major tech platforms censor conservative voices.

“Conservative politicians and groups backing this legislation due to understandable grievances with certain tech companies are making an incalculable error,” said Patrick Hedger, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. It has run most of its $7.4 million total advertising in the last six weeks, the Journal’s analysis showed.

One state that industry allies have targeted is Texas, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) “is still reviewing the bill, because he continues to be concerned about anticompetitive conduct by some big tech companies towards American consumers, and in many instances conservatives,” a Cruz spokesman said.

The state’s other senator, Republican Sen.

John Cornyn,

opposes the legislation, citing the potential national security consequences.

“The last thing we should be doing is weakening America’s ability to compete in a global economy,” he said at a hearing earlier this year.

The bill’s supporters say the proposals would boost economic competitiveness without preventing platforms from offering popular services.

The ads are also running in states where incumbent Senate Democrats are facing re-election fights, such as New Hampshire, home to Sen.

Maggie Hassan,

who hasn’t taken a public position on the legislation.

A spokesperson said Ms. Hassan is reviewing the legislation and “has a strong record of standing up to some of the worst practices of Big Tech.”

Tech companies “know that if the bills came to the floor for a vote, they would pass, and so big tech lobby groups are scrambling to try to prevent that from happening,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, one of the groups that has run ads supporting the legislation.

The group’s funding comes in part from the Economic Security Project, an entity backed by Chris Hughes, the billionaire former Facebook executive.

Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected], Ryan Tracy at [email protected] and Chad Day at [email protected]

Much of the tech industry spending—$13.7 million, or almost 40%—has come since May 1, ahead of a possible floor vote this summer on the bill, which has bipartisan support.

The spending marks one of the biggest ad campaigns by the powerful tech industry in recent years and reflects its fear of the disruptive potential of tougher antitrust laws.

“This is without question one of the most significant campaigns the association has embarked on in recent years, because it’s one of the most radical policy proposals to regulate a leading sector of the U.S. economy,” said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which has spent more than $23 million, the most of any group.

CCIA didn’t disclose which companies provided funding for its ad campaign, saying only that “the association is funding the campaign.” CCIA lists

Alphabet Inc.’s

Google,

Amazon.com Inc.,

Apple Inc.

and

Meta Platforms Inc.’s

Facebook among its members.

CCIA’s ads have included mentions of Amazon as well as Google and “your phone.”

The bill targets dominant tech platforms, including Amazon’s e-commerce site, Google’s search engine, Apple’s App Store and Facebook.

Those companies have been working for months to stop or alter the bill, deploying teams of lobbyists and top executives to Washington. The $36.4 million spent by groups opposing the legislation dates back to Jan. 1, 2021.

Google’s voluntary disclosure of its memberships for 2021 includes CCIA. Amazon also disclosed that it made payments of $10,000 or more to CCIA in 2021.

Many of the ads are running in lawmakers’ home states and districts. They aim to convince voters that easing antitrust standards would contribute to inflation, weaken America’s hand versus China or hurt consumers and small businesses by disrupting popular online services such as Amazon Prime or Google Maps.

Sponsors led by Sens.

Amy Klobuchar

(D., Minn.) and

Chuck Grassley

(R., Iowa) held a press conference on Wednesday to push back on the campaign, saying it is distorting the bill’s impacts.

“We’re confronted with these big tech companies spending tens of millions of dollars on ads and also on front groups to spread falsehoods about our bill,” Mr. Grassley said. “Obviously they want to protect the status quo, which allows them to expand their influence.”

Ms. Klobuchar insisted the bill has the necessary votes to succeed on the Senate floor. “We have momentum despite all the money being spent against us,” she said.

The bill passed a Senate committee earlier this year on a bipartisan basis, although some supporters said at the time that they wanted changes.

It “is specifically designed to target a small number of specific companies, most of which are headquartered in my home state,” Sen.

Dianne Feinstein

(D., Calif.) said at the time.

Supporters, including some smaller technology companies, contend the platforms’ dominant position gives them unchecked power to influence the fate of other businesses. They say restricting the platforms’ conduct would carry significant benefits.

The bill was endorsed by the Biden administration’s Justice Department.

Amazon, Google and Apple say the legislation would make it harder to offer popular services, and that it is fair for e-marketplaces, search engines and app stores to profit off their own innovations.

Meta Platforms hasn’t taken a public position on the Senate legislation, and a spokesman declined to comment.

Senate Majority Leader

Chuck Schumer

(D., N.Y.) hasn’t publicly committed to holding a vote on the bill. However, Mr. Schumer recently told Ms. Klobuchar and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) that he intends to bring it up for a vote on the Senate floor early this summer, a Democratic aide familiar with the conversation said.

The ad-campaign spending has largely been divided among industry trade groups such as CCIA and the Consumer Technology Association, as well as conservative-leaning groups such as Taxpayers Protection Alliance and NetChoice.

“Washington politicians have a law that could break Prime’s guaranteed two-day free delivery and threaten our fragile economic recovery,” said one ad by CCIA, referring to Amazon’s fee-based membership program. “Tell your senators, don’t break our Prime.”

CCIA touts research suggesting that its ad campaign already has cut into public support for the antitrust crackdown.

Other industry-backed ads focus on what opponents say would be the bill’s impact on small businesses and national security.

“The left’s radical liberal bill would take away the digital tools small businesses rely on, empower China to beat America in the race for new technologies, and increase the risk of cyberattacks. Why would Senate conservatives support this dangerous bill?” says an ad from Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Tech companies are hoping to cement opposition to the bill among Republicans, who generally oppose toughening of antitrust laws but have often complained that major tech platforms censor conservative voices.

“Conservative politicians and groups backing this legislation due to understandable grievances with certain tech companies are making an incalculable error,” said Patrick Hedger, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. It has run most of its $7.4 million total advertising in the last six weeks, the Journal’s analysis showed.

One state that industry allies have targeted is Texas, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) “is still reviewing the bill, because he continues to be concerned about anticompetitive conduct by some big tech companies towards American consumers, and in many instances conservatives,” a Cruz spokesman said.

The state’s other senator, Republican Sen.

John Cornyn,

opposes the legislation, citing the potential national security consequences.

“The last thing we should be doing is weakening America’s ability to compete in a global economy,” he said at a hearing earlier this year.

The bill’s supporters say the proposals would boost economic competitiveness without preventing platforms from offering popular services.

The ads are also running in states where incumbent Senate Democrats are facing re-election fights, such as New Hampshire, home to Sen.

Maggie Hassan,

who hasn’t taken a public position on the legislation.

A spokesperson said Ms. Hassan is reviewing the legislation and “has a strong record of standing up to some of the worst practices of Big Tech.”

Tech companies “know that if the bills came to the floor for a vote, they would pass, and so big tech lobby groups are scrambling to try to prevent that from happening,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, one of the groups that has run ads supporting the legislation.

The group’s funding comes in part from the Economic Security Project, an entity backed by Chris Hughes, the billionaire former Facebook executive.

Write to John D. McKinnon at [email protected], Ryan Tracy at [email protected] and Chad Day at [email protected]