Biden Wants FCC To Restore 'Net Neutrality'

President Joe Biden on Friday will sign a new executive order aimed at cracking down on anticompetitive practices in Big Tech, labor and numerous other sectors, CNBC’s Ylan Mui reported.

The sweeping order, which includes 72 actions and recommendations that involve a dozen federal agencies, is intended to re-shape the thinking around corporate consolidation and antitrust laws, Mui reported on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Those wide-ranging goals and initiatives, according to a White House fact sheet on the order released Friday morning, include:

• Lowering prescription drug prices by supporting state and tribal efforts to import cheaper drugs from Canada
• Allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter
• Urging the Federal Trade Commission to “challenge prior bad mergers” that previous administrations let slide
• Encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to restore “net neutrality” rules that were undone during the Trump administration
• Asking the FCC to block exclusivity deals between landlords and broadband providers
• Establishing a “White House Competition Council” to lead federal responses to large corporations’ growing economic power

“The impulse for this executive order is really around where can we encourage greater competition across the board,” White House chief economic advisor Brian Deese told Mui in an exclusive interview.

Biden is set to sign the executive order at the White House at 1:30 p.m. ET, according to his schedule.

Through its tech-related actions, Biden’s order aims to make the case that the biggest companies in the sector are wielding their power to box out smaller competitors and exploit consumers’ personal information, Mui said.

The order will call for regulators to enact reforms such as increasing their scrutiny of tech mergers and putting more focus on moves like “killer acquisitions,” in which firms acquire smaller brands to take them out of the market, according to Mui.

Brian Deese

The tech giants’ tightened grip has led to a decline in innovation, Deese told Mui.

Those platforms have “created significant problems,” Deese said. That includes “problems for users in terms of privacy and security” and “problems for small businesses in terms of entering markets,” he said.

The executive order “is not just about monopolies,” Deese said, “but it’s about consolidation more generally and the lack of competition when you have a limited set of market players.”

He noted that some research suggests wages are lower in more concentrated markets that are dominated by just a handful of firms.

The order could provide some relief to small and medium-sized businesses that have complained of the allegedly crippling grip of tech firms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google over digital markets.