Google and Facebook's ad dominance is targeted by bipartisan US lawmakers

In an early indication of Congress' willingness to take action against Big Tech in the coming year, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday aimed at reducing the clout that Google and Facebook have in the online advertising world.

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Various companies, including Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Facebook (META.O), as well as Amazon (AMZN.O) and Apple (AAPL.O), are targeted in the bill according to the office of Senator Mike Lee.

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According to the bill, the big digital advertising companies, including Google, which holds the title of being the biggest, would not be allowed to own more than one part of the stack of services that connect advertisers with companies that will be able to place advertisements on their websites.

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There would be no impact on the bill unless a company makes an average digital advertising transaction of over $20 billion. It is estimated that affected companies would need to spend more than $20 billion on digital advertising in order to qualify.

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"In the event the bill is passed and becomes law, Google and Facebook will most likely be required to divest significant portions of their advertising businesses-business units that account for or facilitate a large portion of their ad revenues," Lee's office said in a statement.

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"The bill could also force Amazon to divest some of its operations. It will also affect Apple's plans to aggressively enter the market for third-party ads."

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There was no immediate comment from the companies.

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Among the bill's main sponsors are antitrust experts, such as Senators Mike Lee, a Republican, and Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, who are both members of the Senate. The group also includes Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Republican skeptics such as Mr. Josh Hawley and Mr. John Kennedy, who are both skeptics.

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Congress passed a number of bills in the last legislative session to give law enforcers bigger budgets and to strengthen state attorneys general, but legislation to rein in big technology was defeated.