Four major tech CEOs testify Wednesday before a House antitrust subcommittee that is examining their power in the marketplace.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai are expected to defend the size of their companies, which are being examined as potential monopolies.
The hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law began at around 1 p.m. ET and is expected to go on for several hours, as up to 15 members of the subcommittee have a chance to question the executives.
The hearing is an unusual collection of wealth and influence. Two of the four CEOs, Bezos and Zuckerberg, are among the wealthiest people in the world, with more than $265 billion in accumulated wealth between them, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Their presence alone makes the hearing likely the biggest concentration of corporate wealth ever to appear before Congress.
The corporations they lead are among the world's most valuable and influential, touching the daily lives of billions of people and piling up huge profits even during a pandemic. Apple is currently valued at $1.6 trillion, Amazon $1.5 trillion, Google’s parent Alphabet at $1.04 trillion and Facebook at about $656 billion.
President Donald Trump said in a tweet that he was considering executive orders if Congress does not act.
“In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!” he said.
Trump has tangled at times with Bezos, attacking the executive over negative coverage of him in the Bezos-owned Washington Post. Amazon has blamed Trump’s personal attacks for its failure to land a major government contract last year, and it’s suing over the lost deal.
Trump has had somewhat warmer relationships with Zuckerberg, whom he has hosted for a White House dinner, and with Cook, whom he once called “Tim Apple.” But Trump’s Justice Department is also reportedly preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Pichai’s company.
“We’re going to be watching the hearings today very closely,” Trump said Wednesday. “But there's no question that what the big tech companies are doing is very bad.”
Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., has been investigating the tech industry for more than a year and is preparing a report on possible anti-competitive practices. That report could later serve as the basis for legislation.
Cicilline’s report will “likely call for Congress to change antitrust laws to make it easier to sue dominant tech companies,” Paul Gallant, an analyst with the investment bank Cowen, said in a note to clients this week. “If Democrats sweep in November, that bill has a reasonable chance of enactment” in late 2021, he said.
The nation’s major antitrust laws, including the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, were all written more than a century ago. The Sherman Act, which led to a wave of trustbusting, was the first major U.S. law to restrict monopolies.
The four executives will testify virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, and some lawmakers could also appear virtually. Of the four, Bezos is the only one who has never testified previously before a congressional panel.
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July 29, 2020 at 11:01PM
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4 tech industry titans to defend the size of their companies before Congress - NBC News
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