As the Trump administration prepares to take the reins, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is renewing her push for antitrust reform, emphasizing the need for clear rules to curb the power of tech giants. Despite the momentum of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) stalling in 2022, Klobuchar remains committed to bringing about meaningful change in the industry.

In January 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance AICOA, a bill that would have forced significant changes to how major tech companies operate, including prohibiting self-preferencing on their marketplaces. However, the bill's progress slowed in the following months, and it ultimately failed to pass through the Senate. Although Congress did manage to pass two important competition updates that year, AICOA's demise marked a significant setback for antitrust reform advocates.

Klobuchar has been a leading advocate for antitrust reform, driven by her conviction that the existing monopoly-busting system is broken. Following the House lawmakers' probe into Big Tech companies in 2019, she and several other lawmakers concluded that decades of lax enforcement and unfavorable case law had left courts and enforcers with limited tools to keep the industry in check. As a result, Congress needed to step in and revamp the system.

Despite the legislative setbacks, antitrust enforcement has experienced a surge in 2024. Tech giants Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google each face federal anti-monopoly suits, with Google facing two. The Department of Justice secured a win in its Google Search case, while Epic Games won a ruling against Android's Play Store. The DOJ and Federal Trade Commission under the Biden administration have also tightened merger guidelines and aggressively scrutinized deals.

As Klobuchar reaches the end of her tenure chairing the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, she argues that the need for reform is more pressing than ever. "It would be a lot easier to have some set rules of the road in place instead of this laborious, long litigation process," she told The Verge in a phone interview. Today, she is overseeing a hearing focused on continuing a bipartisan path to reform as the Trump administration prepares to take over.

Klobuchar notes that antitrust issues have garnered more interest from congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle in recent years. "Maybe because of the bipartisan support and the good work that's being done, we do keep bringing these cases," she said. "But the lesson from the last four years is aggressive enforcement matters."

Klobuchar expressed hope that President-elect Donald Trump's antitrust watchdogs will continue pursuing important cases. While the Senate won't hold new hearings to approve existing FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson's ascendance to chair, she noted that FTC commissioner nominee Mark Meador wrote a positive article about the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster. "I consider that a good sign," she said. Klobuchar added that former Democratic enforcers have told her that Trump's pick to lead the DOJ Antitrust Division, Gail Slater, "gets it."

Although Republicans will set the subcommittee's agenda next year when they take over the majority in the Senate, Klobuchar remains committed to pushing for reforms. "It couldn't be more important right now, with a new administration coming in, that we find ways to work across the aisle to get this done," she emphasized.

The ongoing probes into tech giants and the renewed push for antitrust reform underscore the growing recognition that the industry's unchecked power poses significant risks to competition and innovation. As the Trump administration prepares to take office, Sen. Klobuchar's efforts serve as a reminder that meaningful change is still within reach, and that bipartisan cooperation will be crucial in achieving it.