Rivals Are Publicly Sounding Off Against Big Tech

On January, 17, 2020, smaller rivals such as PopSockets, Basecamp, Sonos, and Tile testified to the the House antitrust subcommittee about how they have been bullied by big tech giants such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon and called for swift action.

According to the New York Times, the smaller rivals, which have largely been publicly quiet until the hearing, finally stepped up to the plate and sounded off on big tech at a hearing in Boulder, Colorado.  The Congressional subcommittee heard stories of technology giants wielding their massive footprints and platforms as weapons, allegedly copying smaller competitors’ features or tweaking their algorithms in ways that stifle competition.

The pleas for regulatory relief resonated with lawmakers, led by Rep. David N. Cicilline (Democrat – Rhode Island), the chairman of the House’s antitrust subcommittee. Cicilline noted that “it has become clear these firms have tremendous power as gatekeepers to shape and control commerce online.”

The executives sounded off on big tech and the bipartisan committee encouraged them to testify about their stories.  The founder and CEO of PopSockets, explained how his company clashed with Amazon over policies that made it hard to sell his products on his preferred terms and prices.

Executives at Sonos, a high-end audio company, and Basecamp, which makes web-based product management tools allege that Google undermines smaller rivals. Sonos has sued Google, alleging patent infringement.  David Heinemeier Hansson the co-founder of Basecamp explained that its competitors have been purchasing ads on Google against the company’s own name, meaning people who search for Basecamp see rivals unless they scroll down their results page.  In other words, Hansson says that Google requires companies “to pay protection money” — or risk obscurity.

Tile makes Bluetooth trackers that can be attached to your personal possessions to help you keep track of them.  A Tile executive explained how Apple rolled out the “Find My” device tool — built into its operating system — that resembled Tile’s app used to find devices making it more difficult for Tile to compete.  From Tile’s perspective, it created a helpful tool for consumers, which was then copied by Apple and then Apple made its app the default on its devices, purposely hurting Tile’s business by making it more difficult for iPhone users to change their default settings, thus creating hurdles for Tile’s app that does not apply to Apple’s app. Tile wants a level playing field.

Along the lines of Tile wanting Apple to simplify what it claims is a too-complicated process right now, Apple shared a statement as part of the congressional hearing suggesting that a fix to this is coming soon. Per the statement shared by a CNBC reporter, Apple noted that:  “When setting up a new device, users can choose to turn on Location Services to help find a lost or misplaced device with ‌Find My‌ ‌iPhone‌, an app that users have come to rely on since 2010. Customers have control over their location data, including the location of their device. If a user doesn’t want to enable these features, there’s a clear, easy to understand setting where they can choose exactly which location services they want enabled or disabled. “…We’re currently working with developers interested in enabling the ‘Always Allow’ functionality to enable that feature at the time of setup in a future software update.”

Democrats and Republicans at the hearing sympathized with the executives.  There was little push back against the testimony of the small rivals.  Indeed, small rivals are encouraged to approach the DOJ Antitrust Division, FTC, and Congress about how the tech giants have used their powerful positions in search, e-commerce, online ads and smartphones to squeeze them out.

Andre Barlow
(202) 589-1838
abarlow@dbmlawgroup.com