The highly anticipated investigation is expected to detail the antitrust allegations involving Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. Also, the recommendations on how to enforce new rules to decrease their power within the market are expected. The report can be expected early fall or, if things work out well, by the end of summer.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee forms the antitrust panel. No CEO has been summoned for the hearing, but the odds seem to favour voluntary testifying with each CEO being questioned. The committee has already received about 1.3 million documents related to the probe.
Competition defense
Reuters reports that these tech companies may refuse to accept the claims that they are dominant and say that they face a lot of competition as a defense during the hearing. The hearing, which was to take place on July 27, has, however, been postponed.
The four CEOs will attend the hearing via a virtual panel while members of the subcommittee will follow the hearing either in person or online. Committee aides say that the committee chair will determine the actual number of questioning rounds.
Adopting a new style
Critical information may be left out since companies don’t always answer questions fully. Given this, a senior aide has suggested hearing from the company decision-makers rather than the CEOs. Additionally, he said that the hearing would not be like a typical oversight where CEOs speak and move on.
It has been a whole year since the House Judiciary Committee started investigating big techs. Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEOs for Apple, Google, and Facebook, respectively, have appeared before Congress to testify. This will be the first appearance before Congress for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
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