It concluded that the four tech giants have abused their market power by charging excessive fees, imposing tough contract terms and extracting valuable data from individuals and businesses that rely on them.
“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy,” Cicilline said in a statement.
The proposed legislation targets the structure of the companies and could break them up, a radical step for Congress to take toward a powerful industry.
As a candidate, President Joe Biden said breaking up big tech companies should be considered, though he hasn’t spoken on the issue as president.
Many Republican lawmakers denounce the market dominance of Big Tech but don’t support a wholesale revamp of the antitrust laws.
Advancing the legislation through Congress could be a tough slog.
The proposals also would prohibit big tech companies from favoring their own products and services over competitors on their platforms. The House antitrust investigation found, for example, that Google has monopoly power in the market for search, while Facebook has monopoly power in the social networking market.
The proposed legislation also would make it more difficult for the giant tech companies to snap up competitors in mergers, which they have completed by scores in recent years.