A U.S. senator seeks approval of an antitrust measure targeting Big Tech

Tuesday, antitrust leader Senator Amy Klobuchar encouraged Congress to embrace a bill to reign in Big Tech, despite the bill's diminishing odds of becoming law.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been under pressure from supporters to schedule a vote on the bill that would outlaw self-preferencing by Big Tech platforms like Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Alphabet's Google. Klobuchar, a main sponsor of the initiative together with the Republican Chuck Grassley, has indicated that she has the 60 votes necessary to pass the law.

Klobuchar made a statement on Tuesday noting, "We must implement legislation to create road rules for internet monopolies." These platforms use their dominant position to unfairly hurt their rivals, at the expense of customers and competition.

Tuesday evening, she will give a speech on the Senate floor about the Big Tech antitrust law and related matters.

Tuesday, Schumer indicated that he was concentrating on chip manufacturing law and judicial nominees. In response to a question on antitrust laws, he said: "I work alongside Senator Klobuchar. I support these propositions... We must ensure that 60 ballots are cast."

Including this week, the Senate has three weeks until its August recess. When legislators return in September, the focus will likely be on the November midterm elections.

There has been discussion of combining Klobuchar's measure with another bipartisan proposal tackling Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google's dominance over their respective app stores.

Numerous suggestions to regulate the IT industry have been made, but experts anticipated that these two antitrust bills had the best chance of passing this year owing to bipartisan concern over the dominance of huge internet companies. While Democrats are concerned about antitrust problems, Republicans have accused internet platforms of suppressing conservative voices.

A plan opponent indicated on Tuesday that its passage into law this year was "very unlikely." On the contrary, advocates for anti-Big Tech regulations have continued to campaign for such measures.