WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: The BASED Act Sparks Broad Support From Tech Leaders and Open Markets Advocates
The BASED Act will protect competition and unlock innovation by preventing Big Tech companies from favoring their own products and services over those of competitors over smaller companies.
SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced SB 1074, the Blocking Anticompetitive Self-preferencing by Entrenched Dominant platforms (BASED) Act, to restore competition to the digital marketplace by prohibiting any digital platform with a market capitalization greater than $1 trillion and serving 100 million or more monthly users in the U.S., from favoring their own products and services on the platforms they operate.
A broad range of technology industry leaders, investors, and open markets advocates cheered the announcement:
Founders and Business Leaders:
“This bill is a meaningful step toward rebalancing power between dominant platforms and the startups that depend on them, so founders are competing on product rather than on a distribution stack tilted toward incumbents. By tightly scoping obligations to only the very largest platforms and building in a clear pro‑competitive defense, it goes after gatekeeping behavior without freezing the kind of experimentation and messy, real‑world problem‑solving that make California’s tech ecosystem work at all.” — Kim-Mai Cutler, Partner at Initialized Capital
"Apple has already shown in Europe that when it’s forced to open the door a crack, users and developers rush through it. AltStore PAL exists today only because EU law required Apple to allow alternative app stores. If Californians get the same protections, the BASED Act won’t just be about punishing bad behavior, it will create real competition by giving developers like us a new way to reach users, putting price pressure on Apple’s fees and giving people more control over what runs on the devices they supposedly own." -- Shane Gill, co-founder AltStore
“SB 1074 gets to the heart of the problem we’re fighting in WhatsApp and other closed ecosystems: when a dominant messaging platform can wall off rivals and privilege its own AI or services, it’s not innovation, it’s gatekeeping. By banning self‑preferencing and reinforcing the principle that digital gatekeepers can’t use their control over core communication infrastructure to crush new entrants, this bill helps ensure that the next generation of AI assistants and internet services succeed because people choose them, not because a monopoly left them as the only option.” - Marvin von Hagen, CEO and Founder Poke AI
“Thanks to years of firsthand experience, I know what happens when a dominant gatekeeper is allowed to abuse its power: innovation gets smothered and consumers are quietly steered toward the platform’s own products, whether they’re the best choice or not. SB 1074 (BASED Act) directly tackles this problem by putting clear limits on self‑preferencing and making sure powerful platforms cannot use their control over search and data to trap users inside their own ecosystem. This is exactly the kind of common‑sense antitrust reform we need if we want the next generation of startups to have a fair shot rather than watching Big Tech pull up the ladder behind them. - Jeremy Stoppelman CEO and Co-Founder, Yelp
"California has led the way on privacy, and now it has a chance to lead on digital competition. SB 1074 would prohibit the self-preferencing tactics that dominant platforms use to box out competitors — the same tactics that make it harder for people to discover and switch to privacy-respecting alternatives like DuckDuckGo. When the market's biggest players can tilt the playing field in their own favor, consumers lose. Senator Wiener is right to act where Congress hasn't." — Kamyl Bazbaz, Chief Communications and Policy Officer, DuckDuckGo
"When dominant platforms preference their own services and control distribution, independent companies don't lose on the merits, they lose on access. We've experienced this directly over 15 years of building privacy tools that hundreds of millions of people rely on. SB 1074 establishes that gatekeepers can't use their position to disadvantage rivals, and that consumers, not platforms, get to choose whose tools they trust." — Casey Oppenheim, CEO & Co-Founder, Disconnect
"At Proton, we believe a healthy digital ecosystem requires fair competition and genuine user choice. This legislation would prohibit Big Tech from self-preferencing their own services, enable more developers to innovate, and prevent consumers from being locked into closed ecosystems. When users can freely choose privacy-focused alternatives without artificial barriers, everyone benefits — from independent developers to everyday people who deserve control over their digital lives."— Raphael Auphan, Chief Operating Officer, Proton
“BASED is not about punishing success, it’s about stopping market corruption — the moment when a platform uses its control over the pipes to bury rivals, tax every transaction, and quietly swallow the open web. This bill restores something simple and very American: if you build something great, you should win or lose on the merits, not on whether a gatekeeper decides to rig the rules.” — Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator
Open Markets Advocates:
"If there's one thing we've learned from the enshittification of digital platforms, it's this: *someone* is going to regulate the way you use the internet. If governments don't step in, that regulator will be a powerful *company*, a platform that structures markets to maximize its interests, at the expense of technology makers, technology users, buyers *and* sellers." — Cory Doctorow
"The BASED Act builds on a century-long tradition of state leadership in competition law. This important legislation will help ensure that digital markets remain open, competitive, and fair, and that economic opportunity keeps pace with the realities of our digital economy." — Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General, US Department of Justice Antitrust Division (2021-2025)
“When large tech companies use their size and reach to push out competitors, working families and small businesses are the ones who pay the price. Californians deserve an economy where the best idea wins, not just the biggest player. SB 1074 creates a level playing field so that everyone can benefit from real competition.” --Samantha Gordon, Chief Advocacy Officer at TechEquity Action
“As advocates for a fairer internet and economy, we’re proud to support SB 1074’s crackdown on Big Tech’s self‑preferencing and gatekeeper abuses, which deny online shoppers real choice and drive up prices for everybody. This bill helps make sure the internet serves the public, not just a handful of CEOs. Big Tech has poured hundreds of millions into lobbyists and scare campaigns to stop exactly this leveling of the playing field, in a desperate attempt to preserve their ability to quietly rig the rules in their favor – but the public is wising up, and we thank Senator Weiner for leading the charge on this critical reform.” — Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, The Tech Oversight Project/Tech Oversight California:
“SB 1074 is a landmark step toward restoring the kind of open, competitive markets that are essential to a free democracy and a resilient economy. For too long, a handful of dominant digital gatekeepers have been allowed to tilt the playing field through self‑preferencing and control of data; this bill helps put the law back on the side of citizens, workers, and entrepreneurs rather than monopolists. As someone who has spent decades studying the dangers of concentrated economic power, I see SB 1074 as a model for how states can modernize antimonopoly rules for the digital age. — Barry Lynn Open Markets institute
"When the same company owns the marketplace it competes in, it is all too easy to unfairly tilt the scales in their own favor. It’s well documented that this is precisely what some of the largest tech companies have been doing. Startups, small and medium tech companies, and independent entrepreneurs can't build and grow if the most ubiquitous digital platforms bury their products. The BASED Act would prohibit self-preferencing and safeguard merit-based market competition. This legislation stands for a simple principle: owning the stadium doesn’t mean that you get to rig the game." — Teri Olle, Vice President, Economic Security California Action.
“Innovation is the cornerstone of California’s economy, and fair competition its essential ingredient. But a handful of dominant tech giants have stifled that creative spirit with artificial constraints and conflicts of interest. Senator Wiener’s bill helps restore a dynamic, open marketplace where innovators can build, compete, and succeed on the merits.” — Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at American Economic Liberties Project
“Abundance isn't limited to housing, we need it in our digital economy, too. Right now, a few giant platforms can preference their own services and choke off new competitors. It's scarcity by design: fewer choices for consumers, fewer opportunities for builders, and higher prices baked into every transaction. The BASED Act is about flipping that script and demanding abundance online. We will all do better with more competitors, more innovation, and more power in the hands of ordinary people instead of a tiny handful of gatekeepers.” -- Todd David, Political Director, Abundant SF
“Fight for the Future supports SB(ASED) 1074 because it will help stop Big Tech from rigging the rules of the internet in their favor. This legislation cracks down on abusive self‑preferencing practices, while protecting interoperability and data portability, to make it easier to leave Big Tech platforms and build better alternatives. Lawmakers should pass SB 1074 without delay and show Californians that they stand with their constituents, free expression and human rights, not Big Tech monopolies.” — Evan Greer Director at Fight for the Future
###