Congress Shouldn’t Adopt European Economic Failures That Harm Americans
WASHINGTON—Today, a few senators decided to resuscitate the failed American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA), which largely replicates failed economic policies from Europe that have contributed to the continent’s innovative stagnation.
"AICOA remains a deeply flawed piece of legislation that punishes American success rather than targeting actual misconduct," said Amy Bos, NetChoice Vice President of Government Affairs. "By targeting a handful of companies based largely on their reach and popularity rather than demonstrated harm, this bill abandons the time-tested consumer welfare standard that has guided American antitrust law for decades. In its place, it installs a bloated regulatory framework that repeats the exact mistakes of Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).”
Bos continued: "If passed, AICOA will directly degrade the tech products that Americans use and love. Many of the integrated features consumers rely on every day, from digital maps embedded in search results to pre-installed apps, seamless account integration, and built-in, industry leading security protections, could be legally challenged under AICOA. The result is not more innovation, but worse products that are less convenient, less secure and less useful."
The DMA forces companies to redesign popular services based on regulatory preferences rather than the preferences of consumers—people who know what they and their families need. It also treats American innovators like piggy banks, extracting multi-million-Euro fines to fill their coffers. The United States should learn from Europe’s failed experiment, not import a bureaucratic regime that has generated massive compliance costs, product disruptions and deep uncertainty without delivering a meaningful benefit to everyday consumers.
AICOA would hand a massive competitive advantage to our foreign rivals. At a time when the United States is locked in a fierce global competition in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, Congress should not be imposing failed, heavy-handed restrictions on American innovators. Weakening domestic technology leaders risks ceding critical ground to foreign competitors, particularly those backed by adversarial governments that do not share America's commitment to free enterprise, privacy and free expression.
Finally, AICOA chills the next generation of innovation. Every successful startup hopes to scale up and become the next great American technology company, but AICOA would tell entrepreneurs: if you become too successful, the government will single you out for special restrictions that do not apply to your competitors. That discourages investment in new ideas, reduces the incentive to innovate, and ultimately harms America’s entire economic ecosystem.
Congress has tried and failed to pass this bill before. Each time, lawmakers have rightly recognized that AICOA would raise costs, reduce choices and weaken American competitiveness. Reintroducing it today doesn't magically fix its fundamental flaws. The Senate should set this bill aside for good and let American innovation keep doing what it does best: delivering for consumers.
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Please, PLEASE. Keep spreading awareness, pushing back and contacting those to oppose this ridiculousness, for example, Wisconsin mentioned that age checks aren’t the answer to this, which made them scrap their VPN ban and ID verification proposal entirely.
🚨KOSA update:
To make a long story short, the White House is pushing for a package on Capitol Hill that bans AI regulation in exchange to pass #KOSA and other age verification laws. R's working with White House on this while D's are also negotiating. A deal could come in weeks.