[xnyan]

From a realpolitik perspective, It's not possible for their to be a standard procedure in practice. Even if the law is clear and unambiguous (it's not), prosecutors and regulatory bodies have the discretion to attempt to enforce or not. These decisions are subject to an ever shifting set of power and influence as circumstances and motivations change.

As an example, in general the way Facebook and Google operate is not substantively different than it was a decade ago. The impending anti-trust action they are facing is a result of changing feelings and external conditions, not a (significant) change in law and regulation.

[zaksoup]

A decade ago Facebook did not own Instagram or WhatsApp. Framing this as "Facebook and Google have not changed how they operate" is disingenuous, seeing as Anti-trust has generally been enforced over what is in the interest of the consumer.

Google has always been an advertising company. Google's growing monopoly, however static their operating methods have been, is no longer viewed as in the consumers' best interest and is thus now under scrutiny.

I don't think it's all that accurate to frame this as "people in power are threatened by [big tech]'s power" when there are plenty of reasonable people making convincing arguments that big tech is no longer operating in the best interests of the consumer.