Connected Commerce Council

• Connected Commerce Council (3C) is a small business front group for Big Tech. The group counts Amazon, Facebook, and Google as partners.
• The group was formed by Jake Ward, who had previously founded the Application Developers Alliance, another group which counts Google and Facebook as members.
• 3C’s tax filings show its address is listed as the office of the Washington DC lobbying firm it pays to lobby the federal government on its behalf.
• Connected Commerce Council has employed Majority Group’s Robert Ellsworth as its sole federal lobbyist, paying him $1.2 million since 2018.
• Connected Commerce Council pushes small business owners to write letters to policymakers discouraging Big Tech regulation and often provides these small business owners with template language. In one case, 3C was caught by the Washington Post having failed to inform a small business letter writer of the organization’s ties to Big Tech companies like Google.
• In 2019, 3C recruited small business owners to express concern about the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust investigation into Big Tech.
• In 2020, Google partnered with 3C to push out white papers making the case that Big Tech was key to keeping small businesses open during the pandemic.
• 3C also led opposition to the antitrust bills in Congress in 2021 and 2022, flooding social media and newsletters with ads defending Big Tech. The organization’s PR firm also sent talking points to local chambers of commerce for opposing the bills. And 3C arranged meetings between small business owners and members of Congress.