A bill introduced by a bipartisan group of US Senators Thursday would take a bite out of Google and Facebook’s online advertising dominance.
The bill would prohibit large digital advertising companies from owning more than one part of the stack of services that connect advertisers with companies with space for advertisements.
The proposal, sponsored by Republicans including Mike Lee and Josh Hawley as well as Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, would specifically target companies that do more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions — namely Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple, per Sen. Lee’s office.
"If enacted into law, this bill would most likely require Google and Facebook to divest significant portions of their advertising businesses-business units that account for or facilitate a large portion of their ad revenue," Lee's office said in a statement.
"Amazon may also have to make divestments, and the bill will impact Apple's accelerating entry into third-party ads."
Contact Andrew Kessel at andrew.kessel@proactiveinvestors.com
Follow him on Twitter @andrew_kessel