Lawmakers are ready to change Big Tech — just not the ones in Washington, D.C.

Congress continues to flail when it comes to regulating privacy, competition and more, but state and even some local governments have already jumped in to fill the void in recent years. Now they’ve got big plans for 2022 that could have national implications.

As state legislatures convene this month, the bills and policies that emerge are likely to increase tech companies’ fears of a legislative patchwork — a system of divergent, and sometimes stringent, obligations among different states.

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Competition and app stores

Wholesale antitrust reform aimed at Big Tech is another area where Congress has flexed its muscles, but even bipartisan interest from lawmakers may not be enough to secure passage for any bill. Federal lawmakers have also proposed regulating Apple and Google’s app stores following furious lobbying by both sides on the issue in several states.

• New York: The state Senate’s deputy majority leader has pledged to keep pushing a competition law overhaul that would make it easier for the state to prove a company’s dominance in court and harder for businesses to argue their conduct is justified. The bill is already scheduled for a legislative hearing this week. “It has a lot of tech tie-ins,” said Pat Garofalo, director of State and Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project, which pushes to rein in big companies.
• Arizona: The state arguably came closest of any to passing its app store bill last year and seems poised to try again, said Garofalo, who authored a guide to “taking on Big Tech’s economic power” for state legislators. Georgia also came close, and a different New York bill that focuses just on app stores has been referred to committee again recently.

Workplace

Workplace questions dominated 2021 for many tech companies, from hopes for longer-term remote options to unionization efforts. In the fall, amid California’s ongoing disputes about gig-worker classification, the state also passed a law preventing workers from having to comply with unsafe quotas in retail warehouses like Amazon’s.

• Illinois: Given the deaths of six workers at an Amazon warehouse in the state during a December tornado, the state will likely be among those moving forward with warehouse legislation like California’s, according to Garofalo. He said he was also aware of New York lawmakers drafting a version.
• Massachusetts: The state is already the next battleground over whether those who do work through Uber, DoorDash and similar companies should be treated as employees and what benefits they might receive. It’s in the form of a coming ballot measure, though, rather than legislative action.