Congressman Leading Tech Antitrust Investigation Says July Hearing Confirms 'Deeply Disturbing Behavior'

[MacRumors]

The antitrust hearing that Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos participated in back in July confirmed that all of the companies are engaging in "behavior which is deeply disturbing and requires Congress to take action," according to Representative David Cicilline, the chairman of the House antitrust panel leading the inquiry.

Cicilline made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg, where he said that the investigation has confirmed that Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook are all abusing their market power to the detriment of consumers.

"The kind of common theme is the abuse of their market power to maintain their market dominance, to crush competitors, to exclude folks from their platform and to earn monopoly rents."

Cicilline said that he is prepared to deliver recommendations as soon as next month, and that Congress must act urgently to protect consumers. Cicilline did not go into detail about the recommendations the panel would deliver, but he says he's working with Republicans to find common ground on "biggest, boldest ideas."

According to Bloomberg, Cicilline did mention the possibility of a Glass-Steagall law for technology platforms, which would prevent tech companies from both running a platform and competing on it at the same time.

"That's a big idea," he said about separating the two functions. "It would be one way to try to separate out what is a relationship fraught with conflicts that I think is promoting tremendous market dominance and bullying behavior by Amazon, as an example."

The antitrust committee's report will address four areas: changes to current antitrust laws, reforms aimed at the tech sector, strengthening private antitrust litigation by plaintiffs, and ensuring the DoJ and FTC have the resources to do their jobs.

The U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee has been investigating Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook since July 2019, culminating in a hearing with the CEOs of all of the companies.

For Apple, the subcommittee has focused on the company's App Store policies and fees, specifically instances where it has rejected apps and changed App Store rules to its apparent benefit, such as when it began rejecting some parental control apps for using Mobile Device Management after the release of the Screen Time feature.

As the antitrust investigation has unfolded, Apple has been involved in some public battles over App Store policies and fees, first with the "Hey" email app and currently with Epic Games.

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Article Link: Congressman Leading Tech Antitrust Investigation Says July Hearing Confirms 'Deeply Disturbing Behavior'

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

This is just crazy! Mr. Cook, STEP IT UP.

 

[TheDailyApple]

Government intervention usually makes things worst.

 

[Apple_Robert]

It is so disturbing the Congressman doesn’t even state what he meant by deeply disturbing.

 

[DVD9]

If Alex Jones is not replatformed by the new laws then the whole thing is another fraud.

 

[Dwalls90]

Nothing was done by Congress when Facebook screwed with the 2016 election. I'm sure no real action will be taken here either.

 

[now i see it]

It's an inevitability of capitalism. That's the root problem.

 

[shapesinaframe]

If Apple is forced off their own App Store, they’ll probably just create a new “Apple Apps” app built into iOS/MacOS to list all their apps. Might actually help them get more people using their apps 😆

 

[lkrupp]

This is grandstanding pure and simple. These politicians know that if they screw with FAANG the economy goes belly up and the stock market crashes big time.

 

[SuperCachetes]

"Voting Citizen Says Second Session Confirms Deeply Disturbing Behavior in Congress"

 

[-DMN-]

Goodbye Logic and Goodbye Final Cut!!

 

[-DMN-]

It's an inevitability of capitalism. That's the root problem.

No it’s not. Nothing wrong with native Apple applications.

 

[rillrill]

Ma Bell! Apple got the ill communication!

 

[blueflame]

This is grandstanding pure and simple. These politicians know that if they screw with FAANG the economy goes belly up and the stock market crashes big time.

This assumes the Politicians are intelligent, And caring, instead of willing To tank the system due to their own grandstanding and vote hunting

I believe that they are willing to tank the country and everyone along with it, and that for the most part the people that The ones in charge don’t care if they tank everything to get their way.

The means justify the end.

 

[silentdevotion]

It's amazing how I got attacked on here for stating the same thing, equality is about treating every developer fair. Apple is know to abuse this power, hopefully it brings better change to the App Store.

 

[SSD-GUY]

News just in, Publicly traded company tries to retain market share and earn a profit.

 

[TiggrToo]

Given that way too many politicians also think that providing a backdoor to encryption would still be perfectly safe, you’ll forgive me if I start off assuming pretty much all politicians are morons, then work my way up from there.

 

[goobot]

Still can’t understand why they blocked xcloud other than trying to squeeze money out of Microsoft.

 

[4jasontv]

Hmmm. That's not what I paid him to say. Stick to the script Davey.

 

[portland_bill]

The gubmint are just throwing their toys out of the pram, I suspect.

 

[DanTheMan827]

Government intervention usually makes things worst.

It didn't hurt when they took care of Microsoft in the 90s...

 

[farewelwilliams]

what’s disturbing is their lack of knowledge on this matter.

 

[Williesleg]

Well now they all just poked the hornet's nest.

 

[wood1208]

These politicians have screwed American companies in the name of anti-trust while Chinese companies are growing leaps and bounds with the help from their Chinese government. American politicians are the real problems for hindering the success of American ingenuity. Get rid of uninformed, moron politicians and America will be much better.

 

[SDJim]

Spoken like somebody desperate to make their job sound as important as possible...