Federal Gov't Penalizes Success - Why?

Why the U.S. Gov't Must Stop Punishing Success

In today's America, a Department of Justice (DOJ) lawsuit is a distracting and costly rite of passage for any leading tech company.

Amazon, Meta, NVIDIA, and Google are all under fire, with the DOJ now taking Google to trial over its digital ad business, threatening "behavioral and structural" remedies to break up the company.

This federal trial underscores a troubling trend: The U.S. government, often with foreign support, is working to curtail the growth and success of our nation’s most innovative companies.

Congress needs to rein in the executive branch and federal agencies before it’s too late.

That Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., promises an "out-and-out brawl" for anyone challenging FTC Chair Lina Khan, speaks volumes on how anti-success and anti-innovation our nation’s leadership has become.

If this dangerous pattern continues, we are imposing serious harm to these companies and the millions of Americans who own their stock.

Yet lawsuits continue to stifle companies' ability to achieve growth.

This creates a chilling effect — eliminating the motivation to succeed, hampering our tech leadership, and again offering foreign adversaries a leg up.

This predatory attack on our crown jewel companies sends a clear message to all American investors, entrepreneurs and businesses and our foreign competitors about how the U.S. government views innovation and competition — that our government wants to limit success in our nation.

Equally awful is the open invitation this message, along with overt action by the Federal Trade Commission, sends to other countries: Sue American companies and get billions of dollars.

The European Union’s sluggish economy is proof that bureaucracy, harsh tech laws and well-meaning but overly broad consumer privacy protections hurt economies and consumer choice.

Burdensome EU rules promising to promote innovation and competition have stifled it, creating roadblocks for developing and using new technologies.

According to a recent study from the World Economic Forum (WEF), the EU is falling short of its own digital goals.

With tech companies holding back on releasing new products in the EU, European policymakers are under increasing pressure to revisit heavy-handed and overly precautionary rules.

America must not follow the EU’s lead.

The U.S. has historically taken a less restrictive approach to tech regulation, encouraging the risk-taking that allows for opportunity and growth.

This model has enabled startups and established companies alike to launch world-changing innovations that vaulted America to global tech leadership.

Weighing these innovative tech companies down with unnecessary rules will cripple American businesses and the national economy.

The main benefactors of these lawsuits are foreign nations looking to overtake America as the global launchpad of ideas.

As economic experts have noted, The DOJ’s recently proposed remedy in Google’s antitrust case is an issue of national security.

Weakening Google’s ability to integrate security tools will force sensitive data into the open and fragment AI capabilities, introducing vulnerabilities that adversaries could easily exploit.

With America’s global tech leadership hanging in the balance, we cannot afford to undermine the innovation that has always been our greatest strength.

Tech companies are proof of what is achievable in America with an idea and a dream — we must keep them that way.

World-class businesses such as Meta and Google began in dorm rooms with a few students and a simple idea. Others like Hewlett Packard (HP) started in a garage.

Thanks in part to the innovation-friendly regulatory landscape at the time, they were able to pivot on those ideas, creating technologies that have touched billions across the globe.

Now, the U.S. government wants to use their success against them, claiming that their overwhelming popularity with consumers is proof that they are illegally monopolizing a market where they excel through superior product design.

This contradicts the American dream.

While the tech industry can benefit from predictable rules of the road, it doesn't need destructive regulations that stifle innovation. U.S. policymakers and judicial bodies may believe they are benefitting the American people, but they're not.

They're attacking companies who've prospered through excellence and, in doing so, they're warning the next generation that success will not be rewarded.

America is at a crossroads in history. On the brink of incredible new tech advancements with the growth of AI, we must ask ourselves now how we will approach American competition and innovation. Our answer today will determine our ability to compete on the world stage for decades to come.

Gary Shapiro is CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)^®, the trade association representing the $505 billion U.S. consumer technology industry. CTA also owns and produces CES^® — the world’s most powerful technology event.

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