Five things to know about the Big Tech antitrust report

After years of calling Big Tech too big, Democratic lawmakers are calling for Congress to rein in Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple by breaking them up, limiting future mergers and blocking self-dealing that could hurt competitors.

Those proposals are in a 450-page report issued Tuesday by a House antitrust panel, which undertook a 15-month investigation into the companies’ market dominance. Here are five big takeaways.

MORE BARK THAN BITE?

With the election less than a month away and a new Congress due to be sworn in Jan. 3, there's little chance of action on the report's recommendations this year. But the report offers Congress a roadmap for 2021 should it choose to follow up on the report's proposals, which seems likely should Democrats regain control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

The Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has said that he'd consider company breakups.

MONOPOLY OR MONOPOLY-ISH?

The report said the four companies 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. But it stopped short of declaring them all monopolists.

The report found that Google holds a monopoly in search and that Facebook has monopoly power in social networking. But it merely said that Amazon and Apple have “significant and durable market power” in, respectively, the U.S. online retail market and mobile operating systems and app stores.

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

Forcing the companies to break up would be a radical step for Congress to take with a powerful industry. For decades, the tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington, but have faced growing scrutiny and criticism over...