Cicilline Sees Amazon In Antitrust Focus

Times have changed, Rep. Cicilline said, and ‘we must level the playing field.’

ABA Winter Institute recently invited US Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee, to speak on “Reining in Monopoly Power: Small Businesses and the Push to Strengthen Antitrust Laws.”

The American Bookseller Association’s membership of independent bookstores has long called for government action over Amazon’s business practices. Cicilline’s obvious allusion to Amazon likely were welcome words, notes Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.

“Rep. Cicciline acknowledged that companies like Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have largely been given a pass so far by Congress because they didn’t want to be seen as obstructing the growth of entrepreneurial American companies—and the tech sector in America leads the economy in many ways,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“But times have changed, the Congressman said,  and ‘we must level the playing field.’”

According to Albanese, Cicilline advocated for a Glass-Steagall Act for the retail marketplace.

“I think you either need to be a seller of goods and services or you can control the marketplace — you cannot do both,” Cicilline told the ABA.

Every Friday, CCC’s “Velocity of Content” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.