Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are personally lobbying senators against antitrust legislation: report

Photo credit should be given to NOAH BERGER/AFP.

Tech companies in the US are worried about antitrust legislation. According to a report from Punchbowl News, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai have been personally calling and meeting with senators, urging them to oppose the legislation.

The American Innovation and Choice Online Act is a bipartisan bill spearheaded by Amy Klobuchar. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to consider the legislation today. It is easy to see why the bill is ruffling feathers with Silicon Valley's biggest beasts.

The legislation only affects the largest tech firms.

The legislation prohibits online platforms from using their own products, services, or lines of business over those of their rivals. It only applies to the biggest tech companies and will be expanded to cover Chinese tech giants. The platforms would be barred from biasing search results in their favor, limiting rivals access to platform data, and using non-public data from customers to compete against them.

Although the exact impact of the legislation is difficult to predict, one aspect that worries Apple in particular is a possible threat to its App Store business model. In a letter sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Apple said that if the bill became law, it would have to allow users to sideload apps onto their phones and tablets from outside the App Store. Apple says this threatens the security of its users by allowing unvetted apps onto devices, and cuts into one of its main revenue streams.

The bill does not force Apple to allow unscreened apps onto Apple devices, according to a spokeswoman for the senator. All of Apple's arguments about side loading are a desperate attempt to preserve their app store monopoly, which they use to charge huge fees from businesses they are competing against.

Smaller companies have come out in support of the legislation. A coalition of 35 tech firms recently wrote a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee arguing that the legislation is necessary to curb the many anticompetitive self-preferencing tactics dominant technology companies use.

A group of businesses, including DuckDuckGo, have signed a letter saying that dominant technology companies have made it difficult for other businesses to compete in the digital marketplace by abusing their gatekeeper status.

It is not the first time that Big Tech's top executives have personally fought against antitrust legislation. Cook called Speaker Nancy Pelosi to warn against the impact of rushed antitrust legislation last year.