Page 29 - bon-dia-aruba-20200730

A29
Business Thursday 30 July 2020
4 Big Tech CEOs take congressional heat on competition

By MARCY GORDON a Washington Democrat. panies are censoring con- mand corporations with wake of the coronavirus
AP Business Writer "But I can't guarantee to servative voices and ques- gold-plated brands, mil- pandemic, "these giants
WASHINGTON (AP) — you that that policy hasn't tioned their business activi- lions or even billions of cus- stand to profit" and be-
Fending off accusations been violated." ties in China. "Big Tech is out tomers, and a combined come even more power-
of stifling competition, four Pichai's opening remarks to get conservatives," said value greater than the ful as millions shift more of
Big Tech CEOs — Face- their work and commerce
book's Mark Zuckerberg, online.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Sun- The companies face le-
dar Pichai of Google and gal and political offensives
Tim Cook of Apple — are on multiplying fronts, from
answering for their com- Congress, the Trump ad-
panies' practices before ministration, federal and
Congress as a House panel state regulators and Eu-
caps its yearlong investiga- ropean watchdogs. The
tion of market dominance Justice Department and
in the industry. the Federal Trade Commis-
The powerful CEOs sought sion have been investigat-
to defend their companies ing the four companies'
amid intense grilling by law- practices.q
makers on Wednesday.
The executives provided
bursts of data showing how
competitive their markets
are, and the value of their
innovation and essential
services to consumers. But
they sometimes struggled
to answer pointed ques-
tions about their business
practices. They also con- This combination of 2019-2020 photos shows Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook,
fronted a range of other Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
concerns about alleged Associated Press
political bias, their effect on
U.S. democracy and their
role in China. touted Google's value to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. entire German economy.
The four CEOs were testify- mom-and-pop businesses In a tweet before the One of them, Bezos, is the
ing remotely to lawmakers, in Bristol, Rhode Island and hearing, President Donald world's richest individual;
most of whom were sitting, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, in Trump challenged Con- Zuckerberg is the fourth-
in masks, inside the hearing the home districts of the gress to crack down on ranked billionaire.
room in Washington. antitrust panel's Democrat- the companies, which he Critics have questioned
Among the toughest ques- ic chairman, Rhode Island has accused, without evi- whether the companies
tions for Google and Ama- Rep. David Cicilline, and its dence, of bias against him stifle competition and inno-
zon involved accusations ranking Republican, Rep. and conservatives in gen- vation, raise prices for con-
that they used their domi- James Sensenbrenner of eral. "If Congress doesn't sumers and pose a danger
nant platforms to scoop up Wisconsin. bring fairness to Big Tech, to society.
data about competitors in But the Google executive which they should have In its bipartisan investiga-
a way that gave them an struggled as Cicilline ac- done years ago, I will do it tion, the Judiciary subcom-
unfair advantage. cused the company of myself with Executive Or- mittee collected testimony
Bezos said in his first testi- leveraging its dominant ders," Trump tweeted. from mid-level executives
mony to Congress that he search engine to steal Executive orders are more of the four firms, competi-
couldn't guarantee that ideas and information from limited in scope than tors and legal experts, and
the company had not ac- other websites and ma- laws passed by Congress, pored over more than a
cessed seller data to make nipulating its results to drive though they too have the million internal documents
competing products, an al- people to its own digital force of law. But presidents from the companies. A key
legation that the company services to boost its profits. can't use executive orders question: whether existing
and its executives have Pichai repeatedly deflect- to alter federal statutes. competition policies and
previously denied. ed Cicilline's attacks by as- That takes congressional century-old antitrust laws
Regulators in the U.S. and serting that Google tries to action. are adequate for over-
Europe have scrutinized provide the most helpful Trump's Justice Depart- seeing the tech giants, or
Amazon's relationship with and relevant information to ment has urged Congress if new legislation and en-
the businesses that sell on the hundreds of millions of to roll back long-held legal forcement funding are
its site and whether the people who use its search protections for online plat- needed.
online shopping giant has engine each day in an ef- forms such as Facebook, Cicilline has called the four
been using data from the fort to keep them coming Google and Twitter. The companies monopolies,
sellers to create its own pri- back instead of defecting proposed changes would although he says breaking
vate-label products. to a rival service, such as strip some of the bedrock them up should be a last re-
"We have a policy against Microsoft's Bing. protections that have gen- sort. While forced breakups
using seller specific data to As Democrats largely fo- erally shielded the compa- may appear unlikely, the
aid our private label busi- cused on market compe- nies from legal responsibility wide scrutiny of Big Tech
ness," Bezos said in a re- tition, several Republicans for what people post on points toward possible new
sponse to a question from aired longstanding griev- their platforms. restrictions on its power.
U.S Rep. Pramila Jayapal, ances that the tech com- The four tech CEOs com- Cicilline also said that in the