American Innovation and Choice Online Act
- Bill Number
- S. 4746
- Origin Chamber
- Senate
- Congress
- 119th Congress, Session 2
- Policy Area
- Commerce
- Status
- Introduced
- Latest Action
- 2026-06-10: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
- Last Updated
- 2026-06-24T15:56:56Z
AI-Generated Summary
Purpose The legislation, known as the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, aims to prohibit certain discriminatory practices by large online platforms that could reduce competition. It establishes new rules to prevent platform operators from unfairly favoring their own products or services over those of other businesses using the platform.
Key Provisions
- Defines "systemically important platforms" as online services (such as websites, apps, or operating systems) controlled by entities with at least $175 billion in average annual gross revenues (adjusted annually for economic changes) and reaching at least 34% of the U.S. population over age 12 or 34% of U.S. households for three consecutive months in each of the prior two years.
- Makes the following conduct unlawful if it materially harms competition:
- Preferencing the platform operator's own products or services over those of other business users.
- Limiting competitors' ability to operate on the platform.
- Applying terms of service discriminatorily among similar business users.
- Restricting access to platform features available to the operator's own offerings.
- Tying platform access to the purchase of unrelated products or services.
- Using nonpublic data from business users to benefit the operator's competing products.
- Restricting business users' access to their own generated data.
- Impeding users from changing default settings that steer them to the operator's products.
- Ranking or presenting the operator's offerings more favorably without neutral, nondiscriminatory standards.
- Retaliating against users or business users who report potential legal violations.
- Provides affirmative defenses, such as actions necessary for legal compliance, safety, privacy, security, or fraud prevention (if narrowly tailored and not pretextual), or if the conduct does not materially harm competition.
- Authorizes enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Department of Justice (DOJ), and state attorneys general through civil actions in federal district courts, with civil penalties between 1% and 10% of the violator's U.S. revenue during the violation period.
- Allows temporary injunctions (up to 120 days) under specific conditions and potential forfeiture of compensation for repeat offenders' executives.
- Requires expedited court proceedings, with final judgments targeted within one year and appeals also expedited.
- Includes rules of construction to protect intellectual property, sanctions compliance, and certain encrypted services, while excluding entities tied to foreign adversaries like China.
- Takes effect one year after enactment, with severability if any part is found unconstitutional.
Significant Changes to Existing Law This Act creates a new regulatory framework for large online platforms that supplements, but does not replace, existing antitrust laws like the Sherman Act and Federal Trade Commission Act. It introduces specific conduct prohibitions tailored to digital platforms, new civil penalty structures based on revenue, officer forfeiture provisions, and mandatory expedited judicial processes not present in prior antitrust statutes. It also adds explicit protections against data use and tying practices unique to platform ecosystems.
Potential Impacts
- Government agencies: The FTC and DOJ gain expanded enforcement tools and independent litigation authority, while state attorneys general receive parens patriae standing; courts must prioritize these cases.
- Citizens: Users may gain greater choice in defaults, rankings, and services, potentially increasing competition among business offerings on platforms.
- International relations: Provisions explicitly address risks from foreign adversaries, prohibiting actions that could transfer data to governments like China's and excluding certain foreign-linked entities from "business user" protections.
- Business operations: Platform operators face restrictions on self-preferencing and data practices, while smaller businesses gain protections against exclusionary conduct.
Main Stakeholders Affected
- Large technology companies operating systemically important platforms.
- Business users (such as sellers, advertisers, and app developers) that rely on these platforms.
- Individual users and consumers of the platforms.
- Federal agencies including the FTC and DOJ.
- State attorneys general.
- Corporate executives of covered platforms (due to potential compensation forfeiture).
Notable Legal, Constitutional, or Political Implications
- The Act preserves constitutional rights, including First Amendment protections, and existing intellectual property and trademark laws.
- It introduces novel remedies like executive compensation forfeiture, which may raise due process considerations.
- Bipartisan introduction suggests cross-party support for addressing platform competition issues.
- The revenue threshold and user thresholds create a high bar for coverage, focusing on the largest entities while adjusting annually.
- Enforcement is limited to civil actions in district courts, with a six-year statute of limitations.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the official source document for the authoritative text.
Sponsor
Cosponsors (5)
Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN], Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL], Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO], Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI], Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
Recent Actions
- 2026-06-10: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
- 2026-06-10: Introduced in Senate
Bill Versions
- American Innovation and Choice Online Act — issued 2026-06-10 — PDF (27 pages)