Major Technology Company CEOs to Testify Before Congress
July 01 2020 - 9:44PM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON -- The chief executives of Amazon.com Inc., Apple
Inc., Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google have agreed to
testify before the House Judiciary Committee as it investigates
their power over the digital marketplace, according to a
spokeswoman for the committee.
The hearing is planned for later this month, the spokeswoman
said. Representatives of the companies either declined to comment
or didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The
technology journalist Kara Swisher earlier reported on plans for
the hearing.
The bipartisan House investigation is looking at whether U.S.
antitrust laws need to be updated to curb what some lawmakers
perceive as excessive power wielded by tech giants over markets
such as online advertising, online retail and smartphone apps.
The testimony would be a first for Amazon Chief Executive
Officer Jeff Bezos, who had previously agreed to testify.
The others -- Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
and Google CEO Sundar Pichai -- have all appeared before Congress
in the past.
The House panel has been gathering information about large tech
companies for about a year, and last September it demanded emails
from the CEOs and other top executives of the firms, as well as
other documents.
The companies have since turned over reams of documents, though
lawmakers have in recent months been demanding more as well as
commitments for public testimony from the firms' top brass.
Lawmakers are working on a report that could include policy
recommendations to address a perceived lack of competition or
monopolistic behavior in technology markets. The report's
publication is expected to follow the CEO hearing, but it doesn't
appear likely Congress will pass a law on the matter this year.
More pressing for the companies are ongoing antitrust inquiries
by the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state
attorneys general. Of those, the probe of Google appears to be the
most advanced, with the government potentially suing the company
later this year for alleged antitrust violations, The Wall Street
Journal has previously reported.
Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 01, 2020 21:29 ET (01:29 GMT)
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