California antitrust bill targeting Big Tech self-preferencing fails after lobbying blitz

A California bill that would have barred trillion-dollar tech companies from favoring their own products over competitors has failed in committee after an intense lobbying campaign by industry groups. State Senator Scott Wiener introduced the BASED Act, or SB 1074, in March. The bill would have prohibited covered platforms with at least $1 trillion in market value from manipulating search results or rankings to favor their own products and services, and would have restricted interoperability and data portability limitations. Opposition was spearheaded by the California Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Progress, a tech trade group whose partners include a16z, Amazon, Apple, Google, OpenAI, and Uber. Bloomberg reported that the group identified killing the measure as its top priority for the year and ran campaigns claiming the bill would make search results "less useful," deliveries "slower," and phones "less secure." Wiener told Bloomberg that opponents "absolutely flooded the Capitol with lobbyists to trash the bill and times to spread misinformation." He described the effort as a "tidal wave lobbying effort" that left supporters at a "real disadvantage." The bill advanced through an initial committee vote but ultimately failed in a key privacy committee. Wiener told Bloomberg to "stay tuned" as he considers next steps.