Consumer Technology Association Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Michael Petricone moderated a lively CES panel on the importance of fostering a dynamic and competitive marketplace, which, he says, has “profound implications for technology and how we live.” “CES is the most appropriate place to have this conversation,” he noted. Those in support of antitrust regulation didn’t have much of a chance to make its case, as the panel was composed of four ardent anti-regulation advocates, with a single panelist who stood up for the ongoing need for antitrust regulation in today’s market.

Cato Institute Technology Policy Research Fellow Jennifer Huddleston, ASM Games CEO Alfred Mai, Small Business & Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council President Karen Kerrigan, and House Judiciary Committee Chief Counsel for Policy and Strategy Tyler Grimm took the firm position that small businesses and startups thrive in a non-regulatory environment.

Huddleston pointed out that, “when we look at policy proposals governing antitrust it’s about much more than leading tech companies.” “It can impact small companies too, even if they’re not about technology.” Kerrigan agreed, stating that, “startups and small businesses are the drivers of innovation.”

On hand to prove the point was Mai, who, with his wife, started a gaming business. “Amazon allowed me to grow my business in a way I couldn’t imagine,” he said. “We drew it on a napkin and ended up outselling Hasbro and Mattel and are now in retail stores.” Over the past years, he said, there’s been a lot of negative discussion about the relationship between Amazon and its sellers.

“It was so far removed from my personal experience that I decided to get involved in public policy in my home state of California,” he explained. “It’s amazing how little policymakers know about e-commerce.”

From his position on the House Judiciary Committee, Grimm noted that antitrust “used to be a sleepy issue at CES although there were some major deals with huge mergers.” “But they never generated the same emotional response as tech issues,” he said.

Kerrigan stated that 2023 is on track to be the second biggest year for people applying to start businesses, and that new startup numbers are also up. “The market is very competitive,” she noted. “The tech sector is dominated by small businesses. Eighty-nine percent of data processing and web hosting companies have fewer than 100 employees.”

Huddleston said there is a “false dichotomy of big versus small.”

“Small businesses can lower costs and reach more consumers in different ways, such as app stores,” she said. As to how this is playing out in Washington, Grimm reports that, “I think the folks currently running FTC’s antitrust toolbox want to go on a D.C. investigative adventure.”

Charlotte Slaiman, vice president of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge, made the case for antitrust legislation. “We have a problem with gatekeeper power in U.S. and across the globe,” she said. “You can’t compete with those [dominant] platforms and you can’t commoditize them or avoid them. Their take-it-or-leave it contracts are unsustainable and the public policy work we’re doing can help with that.”

She also presented her numbers: “capital investment is at a five-year low globally and in the U.S.” A Brookings long-term study also shows “a continuing downward trajectory of businesses that are startups.”

“Competition is being smothered,” she suggested. In the past three years, she continued, the FTC and DOJ have “been more aggressive” which, she added, is “a part of [their] responsibility.” “It’s a big project so the Congress needs to get off the sidelines,” she said.

Slaiman did not have the last word; Huddleston applauded the courts for “doing a good job at pushing back against the harm that some of these agencies want to do.” And when Petricone asked for feedback on the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which regulates competition, Kerrigan responded that, “the biggest losers will be European consumers.”