Telecom doesn't even deserve to be in that batch. A $50 or $70 cell plan is close to meaningless next to the cost of home ownership, education and healthcare.

Cell plans also have not gotten more expensive over 30 years inflation adjusted. When you include what you actually get in plans today, they've gotten cheaper vs 30 or 20 years ago.

Cable Internet as another example, hasn't gotten expensive out of line with inflation over the last 20 years. While simultaneously what you can do with cable Internet has dramatically increased.

Those other items on the other hand, have seen cost inflation dramatically beyond other consumer goods.

Telecom costs a median American $100 to $150 per month. That's more like the cost of a home insurance policy.

It's not about whether big tech companies — or any companies — cause "market failure". It's whether their behavior is anti-competitive. Are they leveraging their market leadership in a way that hinders other players from participating in the market? Not just, are they making a better product, or have more users: are they interfering with other companies efforts to compete?

How that question is answered regarding AmEx will shape how future similar cases, many of which will involve tech, are judged. There's no equation between them; it's just what this decision will mean.