Congress is officially not playing around when it comes to threatening Silicon Valley. Legislators filed five bills last week aimed squarely at the biggest tech companies.

If they pass, here’s what could happen: 

• Apple would lose some of its power for controlling pricing and payments on the App Store (somewhere, Epic is exhaling).

• Amazon would lose its ability to prioritize its own products

• Acquisitions by any of the biggest tech companies would face greater scrutiny, particularly those involving smaller startups that threaten the companies’ power.

• Amazon and Google may have to divest in some of their products, like YouTube.

• Facebook would have to loosen its practices over collecting and storing data. 

Faster than lawsuits

These are bills in Congress. They could potentially create reform far faster than anything from the Department of Justice. 

The Verdict

Some of the bills have bipartisan support. It’s not a stretch that Congress forces major tech companies to change in the near future.