Kerrigan in the Washington Examiner: The Latest Antitrust Crusade Would Cripple Thriving Small Businesses

By SBE Council at 10 April, 2026, 12:37 pm

In an April 9 Washington Examiner Op-Ed, SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan warns about re-cycled and rebuffed antitrust proposals that would undermine U.S. competitiveness, innovation and small businesses.

These anti-tech measures sadly mirror the EU Digital Market Act's framework, which is not only targeting U.S. tech companies but harming the very environment that is needed across the EU to foster innovation, investment, and economic growth. Kerrigan writes that EU "domestic copycat" bills being considered and pursued in the U.S. - the twice-failed American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) in Congress, and the newly introduced Blocking Anticompetitive Self-Preferencing by Entrenched Dominant Platforms (BASED) Act in California - represent the latest front in an ideological crusade that has already been rejected. Kerrigan writes:

"AICOA and the BASED Act are not pro-competition. They embrace anti-success policies designed to penalize companies for building platforms so useful that small businesses and consumers choose them freely. Breaking up or heavily constraining these platforms won't liberate small businesses. It will raise their costs, reduce their reach and revenues, and eliminate the tools they've come to depend on for productivity and growth."

Read the full Op-Ed here .