Apple's Chief Compliance Officer will speak at Senate antitrust hearing

On April 9, Apple received criticism for its decision to skip an upcoming Senate subcommittee hearing on antitrust issues. On Sunday, in a letter to Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, it has reconsidered abstaining and instead will be sending one of its C-level executives to represent the company.

The letter, seen by Bloomberg, states Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer will be available to speak to the subcommittee on April 21. In response to a letter from the senators to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday, Apple claimed it was "surprised" to receive the letter, and that it was seeking alternative dates for the hearing.

"We have a deep respect for your role and process on these matters and, as we told your staff, we are willing to participate in a hearing in the subcommittee," Apple writes. "We simply sought alternative dates in light of upcoming matters that have been scheduled for some time and that touch on similar issues."

Those "upcoming matters" refers to its May 3 lawsuit with Epic Games about the App Store's rules, including those surrounding alternative app stores and payment mechanisms beyond Apple's in-app purchasing system.

The subcommittee will investigate multiple tech-related antitrust issues, such as app store policies and news publishing, among other topics.

Previously, Cook testified to the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee as part of its probe into Big Tech, which also examined App Store fees and other competition-related elements.

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