Mikey Campbell
A U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing at which big tech CEOs, including Apple chief Tim Cook, are scheduled to offer testimony on antitrust matters will likely be postponed, according to a report on Thursday.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNBC reports a hearing involving Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be delayed as the date conflicts with a service for late Rep. John Lewis.
The House Judiciary Committee and the Antitrust Subcommittee have yet to confirm the decision.
Lewis, a towering civil rights icon, died last Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today announced the late congressman will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol following an invitation-only ceremony on Monday at 2 p.m. Eastern. Bezos, Cook, Pichai and Zuckerberg were was slated to offer testimony starting at noon.
The House Antitrust Subcommittee last year announced a bipartisan investigation into "platform gatekeepers" and "dominant" tech firms, which put Apple under scrutiny for its App Store business, so-called "Sherlocking" of third-party apps and systematic removal of parental control apps.
App Store policies like Apple's 30% cut of developer proceeds have become an increasingly divisive topic over the past few months. Tensions came to a head in June when Basecamp's Hey mail app was blocked from the online marketplace for a failure to integrate in-app purchase and subscription options. After a public back-and-forth between Basecamp and Apple executives, Apple ultimately allowed an updated version of Hey onto the store late last month.
According to a report from The Information, Cook has taken the better part of July to prepare for the hearing. He was initially reluctant to participate, believing Apple "didn't belong with a group of companies increasingly viewed as antitrust malefactors," the report said.
It is unknown when the hearing will take place if it has indeed been postponed.
Charles Martin
Christine McKee
Oliver Haslam
8 Comments
Maybe the duffers figured out there was no there there?
Google: Free + enables incredible small business access to global markets + enhances communication globally + provides more information at your fingertips than was thought possible just a couple of decades ago
Facebook: Free + enables incredible small business access to global markets + enhances connections and communication globally
Apple: Makes the greatest, highest-quality products in the world that enhance people’s lives + has a small market share in most of what it does + plays by the rules + does good for the environment + supports every major social justice and environmental cause
Amazon: Makes stuff from around the globe show up at your doorstep cheaply and quickly in a manner that was unthinkable even a couple of decades ago.
If the committee staff are smart, they will use this to their advantage and have the appearances by these companies separately. As the issues related to each company are noticeably different, having all four there will just muddy the waters and prevent any real discussion.
And as soon as they decided this, the Internet service of the committee members was magically restored . . . :D