Update: The hearing will now take place on Wednesday, July 29 at midday ET. It can be live-streamed here.
Tim Cook’s testimony in front of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee antitrust investigation has reportedly been postponed, according to CNBC.
The hearing was originally scheduled for Monday, July 27 at midday EST. However, two people “familiar with the matter” claim that it is being pushed back. This is due to its overlap with a memorial service for the late civil rights leader John Lewis.
The House Judiciary Committee and Antitrust Subcommittee have not yet officially confirmed the delay. Along with Cook, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook were also scheduled to testify about their own companies.
This is the latest step in a year-long antitrust investigation into the four tech giants. The title of the investigatory hearings is “Online Platforms and Market Power” with a focus on “Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple.”
The coronavirus pandemic has already delayed the investigation. In January, Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline said he expected a report to be completed by early April. However, this has not yet happened. The antitrust investigators have said that testimony of the CEOs in question is crucial for them to complete their report. It’s not been revealed when the hearing will be rescheduled.
Apple currently faces a number of antitrust investigations around the world. These include investigations into the App Store, Apple Pay, Apple’s e-books, and, this week in Italy, scrutiny of possible price-fixing due to an alleged agreement with Amazon. Apple has disputed all of these complaints.
