Apple and other tech giants summoned to testify before Congress

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Apple is heading back to Washington, D.C.
Apple is heading back to Washington, D.C.
Photo: John Brighenti/Flickr CC

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have summoned the biggest tech companies in the nation to come to testify before an anti-trust panel. Apple’s representative will be joined by executives from Amazon, Facebook and Google on July 16.

The House Judiciary Committee panel is made up of both Democrats and Republicans. Members of both parties have been frustrated with the tech companies’ business practices that threaten competition.

Kyle Andeer, Apple’s vice president for corporate law and chief compliance officer; is slated to testify for the iPhone-maker, according to the Washington Post. Amazon associate general counsel, Nate Sutton, will testify too along with Matt Perault, the head of global policy development at Facebook; and Adam Cohen, the director of economic policy at Google.

Apple heads to Capitol Hill

The App Store’s policy to take a 30% cut of revenues from apps and subscriptions purchased by iPhone and iPad users have come under fire recently. Apple currently faces an anti-trust lawsuit that the Supreme Court is allowing to proceed.

Senator Elizabeth Warren has stated that she would like to break up the big tech companies. House lawmakers initiated an anti-trust into the major tech companies starting in June. They are also investigating the current anti-trust laws to see if they give large companies and unfair advantage.

Tim Cook insisted in a recent interview that Apple is not a monopoly.

“I think some people would argue, if you are selling a good, then you can’t have a product that competes with that good. That’s an argument more that takes you down the path that Walmart shouldn’t be stocking alternative or house brand. And so this is decades of U.S. law here. And we’ll be – we’ll tell our story to anybody that we need to or that wants to hear it,” Cook said.

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