Tim Cook agrees to testify before Congress in antitrust probe

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Tim Cook goes to Washington
Apple chief Tim Cook will testify before Congress, and he’ll be joined by the CEOs of Amazon, Facebook and Google.
Screenshot: Apple

The CEOs of four of biggest tech firms will testify in the House of Representatives’s probe into antitrust activities. That includes Apple’s Tim Cook, along with the heads of Amazon, Facebook and Google.

This is part of an ongoing investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into whether the largest tech companies play fair with smaller competitors.

All four CEOs will go in front of the Judiciary Community later in July, according to The New York Times.

Tim Cook in the congressional hot seat..

Lawmakers are expected to ask about the App Store, which forces Apple competitors like Spotify to give the iPhone maker 15% to 30% of their revenue.

And developers’ complaints about the way Apple runs the iOS application store made headlines last month when the creators of an iPhone/iPad email app called Apple “gangsters” for the way they treat devs. Those policies reportedly caused the Department of Justice to consider an antitrust probe of the company.

The European Union is already investigating App Store business practices.

…along with Zuckerberg, Bezos and Pichai

While Tim Cook will surely face tough questions, more heat is likely to fall on the other three CEOs. Sundar Pichai of Google and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook will have to defend their control of 60% of the online ad market. And Zuckerberg will also be asked if his company is undermining democracy in the United States.

Questions about whether Amazon properly treats his employees during the COVID-19 pandemic could be asked of Jeff Bezos too.

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