Congressional lawmakers are targeting tech giants over antitrust concerns — and the proposed legislation could force them to overhaul or even break up their increasingly dominant business empires.
The package of five antitrust bills introduced by a bipartisan group in Congress on Friday — aimed at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google’s parent Alphabet — would make it harder for the biggest tech platforms to complete mergers and keep them from owning businesses that create conflicts of interest.
Two of the new bills could be particularly tricky for Amazon and Apple to navigate as they both run marketplaces that include their own products or apps that compete with outside sellers that rely on their services.
Called the “Ending Platform Monopolies Act,” sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash) and the “The American Innovation and Choice Online Act” sponsored by House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), the reforms could potentially break up the tech behemoths by cracking down on conflicts of interest between their different business lines.
