Report Finds New Small Businesses Concerned Big Tech Regulation Will Impact Them

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2022 — New research released this month by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council shows 61 percent of small business owners that started their businesses after the start of the pandemic are wary of the U.S. government’s effort to regulate the digital giants.

The SBE Council report, which surveyed 316 companies online between January and March this year, found that not only do small business owners rely heavily on e-commerce technology and big technology platforms as ways to grow their business, but they also see the digital world as a thing that will remove financial barriers to small business owners across the nation.

The report found that most small business owners who were surveyed are concerned that lawmaker’s regulations on technology, thus, could be detrimental to their businesses as an increase in regulation could lead to increased prices for platforms that small business owners won’t be able to afford.

The research is released at a time when debate in Washington is focusing on how to deal with the growing influence of Big Tech on the U.S. economy. For example, one piece of legislation on the Senate floor, called the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, would prohibit certain companies with online platforms from engaging in behavior that discriminates against their competitors.

Tax and regulatory relief, not heavy-handed regulation

Ray Keating, the chief economist of the SBE Council, warned in an interview with Broadband Breakfast that lawmakers should stop trying to regulate technology companies and resort to another approach that would promote entrepreneurship on the global level.

“Perhaps we should be looking at a very different agenda that provides tax and regulatory relief,” he said. “Maybe when talking about inflation we should get our monetary authorities focused on sound money.” Keating also mentioned that legislation should be trying to promote free trade right now rather than the focus on technology’s private sector.

Furthermore, Keating expressed his bewilderment of Congress’s attempt to regulate companies that are leading internationally. “These are global leaders that are U.S. firms and I’m bewildered as to why our elected officials want to somehow or another hinder them in the international marketplace,” he says.

Karen Kerrigan, the CEO and president of the SBE Council, said in an interview that lawmakers need to reconsider their effort to regulate big tech companies.

“The shift to digital has created enormous opportunity. We’re at a very important point in entrepreneurship right now where the policy ecosystem can either boost and solidify this entrepreneurial revised spirit that we now have in the country or it could turn it backwards,” says Kerrigan.