(Bloomberg) – CEOs of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Apple Inc. will testify on July 27 before a congressional panel investigating competition in the tech industry, according to an announcement by the Chamber Judicial Committee.
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Tim Cook are likely to face a torrent of critical questions from lawmakers in the panel’s antitrust subcommittee as the investigation develops a case to modernize the antitrust enforcement.
Bezos can be in a particularly tough session. Unlike the other bosses, the world’s richest man will address Congress for the first time, and his company has clashed with subcommittee chairman David Cicilline over previous testimony by another company official and allegations of anti-competitive conduct. .
Appearances can be virtual, according to Monday night’s announcement, which said they would receive additional details about the format.
“Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs be forthcoming,” Cicilline and Judiciary President Jerrold Nadler said in a joint statement. “As we have said from the beginning, your testimony is essential for us to complete this investigation.”
Some of the companies had been reluctant to send their top executives despite Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat, saying he would be willing to subpoena CEOs. He has said he wants to use his appearances to report a final report recommending changes to the antitrust law.
Antitrust scrutiny of giant tech companies is accelerating. Alphabet’s Facebook and Google face competition questions from federal agents and nearly all 50 states. Amazon is under investigation in California, Bloomberg reported, and both the e-commerce giant and Apple face scrutiny from the European Union.
The Judicial Committee had previously announced that the four men would testify, but had not established a date or format.
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