American Innovation and Choice Online Act
Sponsored By: Senator Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Introduced
Summary
Limit anti-competitive and exclusionary practices by the largest online platforms. The bill would stop dominant platforms from favoring their own services, using nonpublic user data to compete with businesses, or locking users into defaults while creating rules for data portability and interoperability.
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- Small businesses and other business users would get clearer protections against self-preferencing, tying, and unfair restrictions on platform features, which could make platform marketplaces more open.
- Consumers and households would face fewer default lock-ins and better options for moving or using their data across services, which aims to increase choice and reduce hidden steering toward a platform's own products.
- Platforms that meet the systemically important threshold, such as owners with about $175 billion in average annual revenue, would face new prohibitions and civil penalties up to 10% of U.S. revenue, and enforcement would be available to the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and state attorneys general with expedited court timelines.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 4 mixed.
Limits on big platform conduct
This bill would bar very large platforms from actions that materially harm competition. It would forbid self‑preferencing, discriminatory treatment of business users, tying unrelated purchases to platform access, blocking interoperability, and using nonpublic business‑user data to compete or prevent data portability. The bill would define "data" as information linked or reasonably linkable to a user and require the FTC to set rules within 180 days. A "business user" would include sellers and developers but would exclude entities identified as national security risks or controlled by foreign adversaries. The bill would not force platforms to disclose trade secrets or other intellectual property.
Legal defenses for platform actions
This bill would create several defenses platforms could use in lawsuits under the Act. The strongest defense would require clear‑and‑convincing proof that actions were needed to comply with law or to protect safety, privacy, security, or prevent fraud, and that the measures were narrowly tailored and consistently applied. Other defenses would allow platforms to show by a preponderance of the evidence that conduct did not materially harm competition. Platforms relying on the strong defense would need ordinary‑course records made at or before the conduct, but would not be forced to create new documents.
Tougher enforcement and faster lawsuits
This bill would let the FTC, the Justice Department, or a State attorney general sue covered platforms and seek civil penalties and injunctive relief. Penalties could be between 1% and 10% of a firm's U.S. revenue for the period of violation. Courts would be asked to expedite these cases, aim for final judgments within one year, and could grant temporary injunctions up to 120 days. The bill would set a six‑year statute of limitations for claims and allow a court to consider forfeiture of up to 12 months of an officer's pay after notice and a hearing for pattern‑or‑practice violations.
Which big platforms are covered
This bill would define which online platforms are "systemically important." A platform would qualify if controlled by a person with at least $175 billion in average annual gross revenues. A platform could also qualify if it reaches at least 34% of U.S. monthly active users or 34% of subscriber households under the specified three‑month tests. The tests would exclude automated/test accounts, allow similar platforms to be aggregated, and take effect one year after enactment. The Commission would update the $175 billion dollar threshold annually and publish the new amount.
One-year delay before rules start
This bill would take effect one year after enactment. The delay would give agencies and covered platforms time to prepare for the new rules. Households would see no immediate change to federal benefits or taxes because of this timing shift.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
IA • R
Cosponsors
Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN]
MN • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]
IL • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO]
MO • R
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [D-RI]
RI • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
NJ • D
Sponsored 6/10/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov