Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on October 2, 2019.
Elif Ozturk | Anadolu Agency | fake pictures
The highly anticipated antitrust hearing with CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google has been officially postponed by the House Judiciary Committee. A new date has not been announced.
The hearing was initially scheduled for Monday, but is now delayed due to memorial services for the late Representative John Lewis, D-Ga., Which are scheduled for the same day.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent Alphabet, were prepared to testify virtually on Monday before the House Antitrust Subcommittee . The hearing is intended to be the culmination of an investigation into the four tech giants that began in June 2019 to assess their competitive practices and the effectiveness of antitrust laws for the new digital market. After the hearing, the subcommittee is expected to issue a report of its findings, as well as legislative proposals aimed at updating antitrust laws.
The investigation had already been delayed by the pandemic, delaying the deadline for issuing the report from early April to probably sometime in the fall.
While the Congressional investigation will not directly lead to any corporate law enforcement action, investigations by US antitrust regulators, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission may do so. The Justice Department is reportedly preparing a case against Google, while the FTC continues to investigate Facebook and Amazon. Regulators have also been asking questions about Apple, though formal scrutiny so far has only been announced abroad. The company faces two antitrust investigations in the European Union.
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