Shapiro Fears Antitrust Crackdown

July 23, 2021 by Paul Gluckman|CES 2023

CTA President Gary Shapiro doesn’t lose sleep over "innovation taking over the world or robotics replacing human masses,” he told C-SPAN’s The Communicators, to be televised this weekend. “I worry every day that our government is going to choke off new avenues of innovation” through antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech, he said. “Look what we did during COVID. Look how the tech industry basically saved, in a sense, the white-collar environment for those lucky enough to work at home and fundamentally changed the world.” Shapiro can live with some of the six antitrust bills that cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month (see 2106230063), he said. “It’s reasonable to look at merger filing fees, as long as they’re not discouraging mergers,” he said. “The government should have a shot” to review transactions “on an objective basis, but it should be time-constrained so it’s not sitting around there for two or three years.” Other measures, including shifting the burden of proof on purchases or giving states more leeway in antitrust reviews, “I just don’t understand,” he said. “I think you’re going to see consumers so upset when they figure out that their politicians are trying to screw up the things they love. I mean, consumers love these services.” There’s “no question” that some things Huawei has done to become “a force around the world” involved intellectual property theft from American companies, which “I find pretty difficult to swallow,” he said. “We lost some revenue” due to Commerce Department export restrictions on Huawei, “but that’s life,” said Shapiro. “We follow the law.” Huawei didn't comment Thursday. CES will return to Las Vegas as a physical show in early January with “wider aisles” and “very strong participation,” said Shapiro. The show has signed on 1,000 exhibitors so far, he said. CES 2020, CTA’s last in-person Las Vegas show, drew 4,400 exhibitors. As “great” as CES 2021 was as a virtual show, Shapiro said, “we have all learned that it’s not the same as being there.”