Big Tech CEOs Appear Before Lawmakers Looking To Reform Antitrust Laws

The CEOs of the United States' four largest tech companies — Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon — appeared virtually before lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday to discuss concerns that they are stifling competition in the digital economy.

Members of Antitrust Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee grilled the CEOs — Tim Cook, Pichai Sundar, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Besos — on their businesses' practices in an effort to establish if there is a need to overhaul potentially outdated antitrust laws.

“Their ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors, and inspire fear represent the powers of a private government," Rep. David Cicilline (D, RI.), the subcommittee chairman, said of the companies in a statement opening the hearing.  "Our founders would not bow before a king. Nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”

Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R., WIS.) took a slightly different tone, clarifying that lawmakers are not against big companies. His questions, like several other Republican representatives, were focused on concerns that big tech companies censor conservative viewpoints.

“Being big is not inherently bad," Sensenbrenner said. "Quite the opposite. In America you should be rewarded for success.”

President Trump weighed into the hearing in a tweet urging lawmakers to get a reign on big tech companies.

"If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders," he wrote.

The hearing comes after the conclusion of an investigation opened in July 2019 conducted by the committee looking into all four companies. Lawmakers leaned on these findings to ask these industry leaders pointed questions about how their companies are operating.

The chairman's opening statement was answered by reaffirmations from the CEOs during their opening remarks of their commitment to American values, a commitment Sundar had to defend later in the hearing when Rep. Ken Buck (R., CO.) went after Google's involvement in China.

Sundar stated that his company has limited operations in China with few Google functions, including Google search, being available there. He added that the company has a small group of researchers working on open-source A.I. projects in China.

Later on representative Matt Gaetz (R., FL.) opened a similar line of questioning with Sundar challenging Google's decision to drop out of a project with the U.S. Department of Defense citing ethical clashes. Gaetz went on to state that Google has helped the Chinese military to develop JR20 fighter jets, a claim Sundar said is completely false adding that Google does not work with the Chinese military.

In one of Zuckerberg's more heated lines of questioning he fended off concerns from Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., NY.) about Facebook's $1 billion acquisition of Instagram in 2012. Nadler contended that the purchase was a violation of antitrust laws citing Zuckerberg's testimony and documents obtained through the committee's investigation.

"Facebook saw Instagram as a threat that could potentially syphon business away from Facebook and so rather than compete with it Facebook bought it," Nadler said. "This is exactly the type of anti-competitive acquisition that the antitrust laws are designed to prevent. This should never have happened."

Zuckerberg responded by claiming that Instagram was a competitor only in a subset of Facebook's operations and that the company took a risk in purchasing Instagram because at the time it was not clear it was going to have success as a social networking site.

Jeff Besos also did not escape the tactful lawmakers, despite this being his first congressional appearance. Rep. Pramila Jayapal pressed the CEO on Amazon's use of seller specific data on their marketplace platform to create their own competing products.

"We have a policy regarding using seller specific data to aid our private label business, but I can't guarantee you that that policy has never been violated," Besos responded.

The data Amazon has access to includes what consumers clicked on but didn't buy, sellers pricing and inventory information, and the company has the power to control which products are listed on its site, according to Jayapal's statement.

Tim Cook was also on the defensive during Wednesday's hearing when representative Hank Johnson asked him about reports from software developers that the App Store plays favorites by taking smaller cuts of sales from other big developers like Amazon.

Cook was adamant that the App Store treats all developers equally and that any developer could receive Amazon's discounted sales cut if they met the requirements. He highlighted that app developers set their own prices and do not pay to be listed in the App Store.

By Emily Mason

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