Graham Dufault

2-day shipping & promoting the lowest prices are two reasons consumers come back to @amazon's mktplace—and small biz can convert browsers into buyers. Now, FTC must put up or shut up: What's better than fast shipping & low prices? 1/3 🧵 mlex.com/mlex/articles/…

In today’s AI ecosystem, a slow regulatory review is a death sentence for American small business innovation. In 2025, U.S. M&A reviews dragged out to a historic average of 12.3 months. For tech breakthroughs—which face obsolescence within months—this timing is devastating. Acquisitions are the primary exit path for over 90% of venture-backed startups. When regulators run out the clock, they starve the small businesses driving competition. Read our new report, "M&A Review in the AI Era," to see why America needs faster, more predictable merger guidelines to keep our tech edge. 👇 actonline.org/merger-acquisi…

Morgan Reed, President of @actonline, tells @BrodyMullinsDC how small businesses are already using AI to respond to RFPs faster, manage inventory, hire employees and grow.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of moderating @actonline packed Hill lunch briefing on #AICOA and small-business growth. Thank you to @morganwreed for keynote remarks and to @JosephVConiglio , @melugin_p , K.J. Bagchi, and Chris Grimm for a great panel discussion.

A coalition led by @actonline is urging California to reject AB 1776, the COMPETE Act. @GDufault: "AB 1776 would replace predictable competition rules with an uncertain, litigation-driven framework..." #antitrust #AB1776 actonline.org/2026/06/29/coa…

📅 TOMORROW, June 30 @ 12 PM ET: Federal privacy legislation could reshape how data is governed across the U.S. Join ITIF for a webinar examining the tradeoffs, debates, & legislative outlook. Register here: vist.ly/59g57

Last week, ACT President @MorganwReed joined @BrodyMullinsDC on @the535news to discuss the latest in tech policy ahead of Big Tech's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Morgan explained why ACT's small business members oppose legislation like The App Store Accountability Act, why we can't treat AI development like pharmaceuticals, and the challenges parents face in managing their children's social media use.👇 535.news/interviews/mor…

📅 NEXT TUESDAY, June 30 @ 12 PM ET: Congress is once again debating a federal privacy law. What’s standing in the way of a national standard—and what would it take to get one passed? Details + registration👇 vist.ly/58t3k

Excited to moderate @ITIFdc's webinar, "AICOA and the Risks to American Innovation," this Thursday from 11:30-12:30 Eastern. Panelists Diana Moss, @RonnaMcDaniel, @GDufault, and @JosephVConiglio will share their unique perspectives and expertise about the bill. Register here to learn all about AICOA: itif.org/events/2026/06…

5th Cir panel’s reasoning on TX ASAA is wild. They argue that bc apps are avail for download, any speech in an app is merely “commercial” for #1A purposes. Then they say having ToS makes all apps “commercial” speech. ASAA hanging on by thin thread. actonline.org/2026/06/11/fif…

Definitely worth a read. An unmanaged digital marketplace is the DMA ideal. But they’ve existed for a long time & managed alternatives always beat them bc trust is currency in distribution. Anyways, @AuerDirk gives them an apt name: “the empty quadrant.”

@TimSweeneyEpic @actonline @ITIFdc @CompPolicyInt You're just trying to shift your distribution costs onto everyone else. Burning down the app stores w/ AICOA or DMA might lower your commission to 0 but everyone else is stuck w/ degraded marketplace management.

@GDufault @actonline @ITIFdc @CompPolicyInt Wide-ranging opposition from a diverse set of lobbying and astroturfing organizations, all funded by Big Tech monopoly gatekeepers!

American Innovation & Choice Online Act (AICOA) was just reintro'd, drawing wide-ranging opposition from a coalition led by @actonline and @ITIFdc. Nice coverage of my stmt by @CompPolicyInt: AICOA prohibits broad categories of conduct that benefits small biz, just like #DMA

In a new syndicated piece, Jon Decker of the Parkview Institute referred to the anti-innovation #AICOA by a more apt acronym: the Allow Insecure Code On Applications Act. Read his full op-ed: djournal.com/opinion/column…

I’ve seen some objections to comparisons of AICOA to the DMA. This much is true: the two are not, provision for provision, identical. However, many policies in AICOA resemble the DMA’s, and we ignore EU experience at our peril. TL;DR: Don’t brush past @GDufault’s warnings:

Some senators have reintroduced the flawed AICOA antitrust bill. The worst part is that it prohibits a firm from copying other popular products on its platform. This is a ban on competitive entry, but it applies only to big firms. This is classic antitrust populism: it would "fix" competition by simply removing big firms from the competitive field. So it's not really about promoting competition or making consumers better off. It's about sacrificing competition to protect small businesses. Some of the behaviors covered by the bill are genuinely anticompetitive (e.g. removing competing products from your platform just to soften competition). But the bill does not do nearly enough to limit its interventions to those problematic cases. judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/rele…

here is @RSI response from @JGWithrow & me regarding the AI legislative grand compromise being considered that would trade a bit of preemption for several unconstitutional federal online safety bills. Such a deal must be rejected.

As @ITIFdc, @actonline and a coalition of over 30 organizations and individuals explain in a letter to @ChuckGrassley and @SenatorDurbin, AICOA will not only harm innovation at home, but rubberstamp the spread of discriminatory policies like the DMA abroad. It must be stopped.

I'll be joining a panel of legal experts at 4 PM ET today to discuss California's COMPETE Act or AB 1776. By upending federal precedents, it threatens businesses of all sizes with compliance burdens & uncertainty, & could delay innovative product features. us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

As EU small developers are dealing with the damage from the Digital Markets Act (DMA), two U.S Senators have not learned the lessons. #AICOA is nothing more than a badly timed bill, based on faulty logic, that will burden American businesses and provide no benefit to consumers or competition.

Just on the heels of another DMA-induced delay, the reintro of the U.S. version (AICOA) is bad news. Just like DMA, AICOA would degrade the integrated svcs small biz prefer & increase distro costs for startups: actonline.org/2024/07/03/for…