One of the industry's giants, Amazon, has financed a group fighting antitrust legislation targeting the best-known US tech companies from the grassroots up.
According to three people familiar with the organization's funding, Scott Brown, a former Republican senator from Massachusetts, has led the Competitiveness Coalition, which has received more than $1 million from Amazon.
As the bipartisan antitrust bill gained traction on Capitol Hill, the Competitiveness Coalition met with Republican lawmakers, ran television ads, and published op-eds opposing the bill without revealing its e-commerce backing.
On its homepage, the group urges people to oppose a radical proposal in a package of bills that could be voted on later this month intended to curb internet giants' dominance.
As the largest and most expensive lobbying battle in the history of the industry, Amazon's funding of the coalition is the latest example of how technology giants have been funneling money into affinity groups that support their agenda.
In an attempt to defeat the measures, Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Meta Platforms Inc.'s Facebook, Apple Inc. and Amazon have allocated hundreds of millions of dollars.
Neither Amazon nor Brown, the group's chair, responded to requests for comment. Founded by the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative advocacy group, the coalition includes more than a dozen right-leaning organizations. Public disclosures by Amazon and Google reveal that NTU, one of the most prominent voices against regulation in Washington, has received money from them for years.
Donor names aren't required to be disclosed by advocacy organizations under federal law. Incubated by the taxpayer group, the Competitiveness Coalition opposes antitrust policies that do not benefit consumers and taxpayers.
‘Astroturfing’
The internet giants have used "astroturfing," which is a form of public relations that creates the illusion of public support, during the fight over the antitrust bills. Over the past year, the companies have poured money into organizations claiming to represent Black and Hispanic communities, small businesses, and national security officials, to bolster their claims that the legislation would harm everyday people.
Bloomberg News reports the Competitiveness Coalition staged a crescendo of actions this week, including urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to drop the bills "in the garbage bin where they belong" and holding its first briefing with Capitol Hill staff. It was advertised as an opportunity to learn about "the dangers of the current antitrust legislation and how it could harm America's global competitiveness."
In a letter to House and Senate leadership, the group also urged lawmakers to reject the legislation. As our economy teeters on the brink of a recession and China continues to nip at our heels, passing this measure is like lighting a match right next to a gas leak.
The left and the right
In November 2020, Amazon hired Mattie Duppler, the National Taxpayers Union's senior fellow of fiscal policy. She helped set up the Competitiveness Coalition, drawing on her NTU connections and close relationships with taxpayer groups across Washington, according to two people familiar with the process.
Amazon's public policy shop saw the Competitiveness Coalition as a counterweight to the Chamber of Progress, a left-leaning tech association headed by former Google executive Adam Kovacevich. Despite the Chamber of Progress' pro-tech voice on the left, some Amazon policy officials decided they needed a similar group on the right.
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