More Than 1,600 Small Businesses Urge Policymakers to Protect Access to Digital Tools

Washington, DC (Feb. 23): More than 1,600 small business owners and advocates today called on state and federal policymakers to support small business partnerships with digital platforms. As the House Antitrust Subcommittee begins hearings focused on digital platforms, small businesses worry that policymakers fail to recognize how important digital platforms are to small businesses. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of small businesses have relied on Digital Safety Net tools and platforms, including digital advertising, online marketplaces, social media, and financial and organizational software, to stay in business. However, government investigations and lawsuits against digital platforms, marketplaces, and services threaten small businesses’ access to the Digital Safety Net and the economic recovery it enables.

Led by the Connected Commerce Council (3C), the letter specifically urged elected leaders to support and not attack small business partnerships with digital platforms, provide small businesses with capital to help pay employees and keep the lights on, and deliver on funding for small business education and training so they can more easily access tools that comprise the Digital Safety Net.

“Affordable and easy-to-use digital tools kept us in business throughout the pandemic. When lawmakers attack the companies that provide Digital Safety Net tools, they inadvertently threaten small businesses. Any further disruption could be harmful to small businesses and their workers. Our elected leaders must work closely with small businesses to help us remain open and drive our economy back to success,” said Jerina Vincent, owner of JNJ Craftworks in Verona, WI.

Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have shut their doors either temporarily or permanently since the pandemic began. 3C studies show small businesses that embraced the Digital Safety Net the earliest had the best chance of surviving the onslaught of closures and economic fallout caused by COVID-19

“Small businesses have been through a year of agony. Many of them are still taking orders and serving customers because the Digital Safety Net is real, and it kept millions of small businesses open during the pandemic. Elected officials must understand that digital tools are so effective for small businesses because the companies offering them are large, interconnected, constantly innovating, and engaged in fierce competition for small businesses’ dollars. Rather than launching investigations, government should empower small businesses and invest in increasing access to and educational resources for digital tools to help small businesses survive and prepare for the next crisis,” said 3C President Jake Ward.