Washington, D.C. — On Wednesday, July 29, the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel will hold a hearing where the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google will testify in person as the Committee prepares to complete its investigation into the state of competition in the digital marketplace. The Committee expects to issue a report on its findings later this year.
“A handful of technology platform giants have come to exert far too much power over consumer commerce and communications,” said George Slover, senior policy counsel at Consumer Reports. “This extreme level of market concentration harms consumers, depriving people of competitive choices, fair and transparent prices, and a meaningful diversity of views. Congress must ensure that our antitrust laws and enforcement are reinvigorated, to restore a competitive online marketplace that works for consumers. This hearing is the culmination of the Committee’s important year-long investigation to lay the groundwork for accomplishing that.”
Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports, added, “Congress should also consider ways to restructure the digital marketplace to promote competition – as it did more than two decades ago for telecommunications. The market power of these large platforms is enabling them to exercise inordinate influence over market access, restricting and diminishing the quantity and quality of our choices, and the pathways for all who seek to reach us – including manufacturers, service providers, content creators, and other voices. And fixing that may prove to be beyond the reach of the antitrust laws.”
Our full letter to the House Judiciary Committee on its ongoing investigation can be found here.
Media contact: Cyrus Rassool, cyrus.rassool@consumer.org