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Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) introduced the Federal Acquisition E-Commerce Fairness and Competition Act. The legislation is designed to protect and promote federal procurement opportunities for small, medium, and large American businesses by requiring the General Services Administration (GSA) to expand its pilot program and address Amazon’s anticompetitive behavior.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 required GSA to establish and manage a pilot program using e-commerce marketplace platforms to enable Federal agencies to purchase commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. 

Congress directed GSA to include multiple commercial e-commerce portal providers in pilot tests to validate their suitability as procurement vehicles, and not to focus only on a single marketplace model or a single provider. Though GSA identified three credible e-commerce purchasing channels, it is unfortunately testing only one model – the Amazon e-marketplace platform – and ignoring explicit Congressional direction to test several e-commerce platforms. 

“Big Tech companies like Amazon have increased their monopoly power across our economy, denying American businesses the fair opportunity to compete for federal procurements,” said Congresswoman Escobar. “My Federal Acquisition E-Commerce Fairness and Competition Act aims to protect small, medium, and large businesses in El Paso and across the country who have been locked out of GSA contracting opportunities and who have already faced unimaginable loss and pain due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

This legislation builds on Congresswoman Escobar’s work in the House Judiciary Committee to address Big Tech’s anticompetitive behavior and it is supported by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW). 

To view the bill text, click here.