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Thursday 18 July 2019

of century-old laws original- incumbents with innovative whether it uses the data
ly designed to combat rail- services and technology. it collects about popular
road and oil monopolies. A panel of four mid-level products to direct consum-
For some legislators, most- executives from the com- ers to Amazon's own in-
ly Democrats, those laws panies countered that their house products.
are in need of updates or firms continue to innovate, Sutton said the company
at least more stringent en- that they face vigorous doesn't use third-party sell-
forcement. Ultimately such competition on all fronts — ers' data to "directly com-
action could lead to break- including from one another pete" with them. Cicilline,
ing up big online platforms, — and, perhaps most of all, affecting disbelief, twice
blocking future acquisitions that they were not monop- reminded Sutton that he
or imposing other limits on olists in any way, shape or was under oath. "Amazon
their actions. form. is a trillion-dollar company
Subcommittee chairman Facebook, for instance, that runs an online platform
David Cicilline, a Rhode Is- has argued that it is not a with real-time data," he
land Democrat, charged monopoly because it has said.
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., left, chair of the House Judiciary an- that technology giants many competitors in busi- Expert witnesses suggested
titrust subcommittee, speaks alongside ranking member, Rep. had enjoyed "de facto im- nesses as diverse as private it might be time to reassess
Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., during a House Judiciary subcom-
mittee hearing with representatives from major tech compa- munity" thanks to current messaging, photo sharing antitrust policy. Timothy Wu,
nies, Tuesday, July 16, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington. antitrust doctrine, which and online advertising. a law professor at Colum-
Associated Press typically equates anti- So Democratic Rep. Joe bia University who has ad-
competitive behavior with Neguse of Colorado asked vocated for more expan-
Continued from Front Committee focused on higher prices for consum- Facebook's head of glob- sive antitrust enforcement,
Both Democrats and Re- whether it's time for Con- ers. That allowed them to al policy development, noted concerns about a
publicans had grievances gress to rein in these com- expand without restraint Matt Perault, to name the fall in the number of start-
to air, even if there wasn't panies, which are among and to gobble up potential world's largest social net- ups being formed, and
much consensus on what the largest on Earth by sev- competitors, he argued, work by active users. (It is wondered aloud whether
to do about them. eral measures. Central to creating a "startup kill zone" Facebook.) When Perault the U.S. will remain a place
A Tuesday afternoon pan- that case is whether their that prevents smaller com- said he couldn't, Neguse where startups thrive and
el of the House Judiciary business practices run afoul panies from challenging ticked off four of the six launch new industries.
largest — Facebook, Face- Fiona Scott Morton, a Yale
book Messenger, Instagram economics professor, ar-
and WhatsApp — and had gued that stifled competi-
Perault verify that all are tion has hampered innova-
owned by Facebook. tion and hurt both smaller
"We have a word for that businesses and consumers,
and that word is monopoly, who have no choice but to
or at least monopoly pow- surrender their privacy and
er," Neguse said. watch more advertising.
The company represen- Others, mostly Republicans,
tatives didn't help their rejected what they de-
case by pleading igno- scribed as a big-is-bad ap-
rance on multiple occa- proach in favor of keeping
sions. Google's director of antitrust enforcers narrowly
economic policy, Adam focused on protecting con-
Cohen, said he was "not sumers when there's clear
familiar" with how much evidence of harm such as
Google pays Apple for the price gouging.
right to supply the default Attorney Maureen Ohlhau-
search engine for Safari sen, a former Republican
on iPhones. (Rep. Jamie commissioner and acting
Raskin, a Democrat from chairwoman of the Federal
Maryland, said It was $9 Trade Commission, said the
billion in 2018 and $12 bil- government can still pro-
lion in 2019.) Cohen also tect against anticompeti-
said he was "not familiar" tive behavior without "re-
with allegations of wide- ducing the focus on con-
spread fraudulent listings sumer welfare."
on Google Maps. She warned against "dras-
Amazon also faced some tic" steps such as break-
pointed questioning. Cicil- ups that carry "serious risk
line asked Nate Sutton, an of doing more harm than
associate general coun- good for competition and
sel at the online retailer, consumers."q