California lawmakers are proposing to expand the state’s antitrust laws to bar some of the technology industry’s biggest companies from using their platforms to disadvantage competitors.
The measure, backed by San Francisco-based startup incubator Y Combinator, targets practices that smaller tech firms have long complained make it harder for them to reach consumers and compete with established services.
The bill would prohibit companies from adjusting search results to prioritize the search engine’s own products, for example, or using nonpublic data from third-party sellers to build competing products.
“These practices at times completely cut startups and midsize companies out of the ...