Top tech CEOs agree to testify before US House judiciary committee

San Francisco, July 2 (IANS): Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet CEOs have agreed to testify before the US House Judiciary Committee that is working on proposals to reform and regulate the digital market.

According to a CNBC report, the hearing would mark the first time all four top executives testify together in front of Congress, virtually or in-person depending on the panel’s call in the Covid-19 pandemic times.

The House Judiciary Committee announced its antitrust probe into the four tech giants in June last year.

Last month, the committee sent letters to technology giants Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet (Google’s parent company), asking them to confirm if their chief executives will testify as part of the committee’s tech competition investigation.

In a statement to Axios, committee chair David Cicilline said the documents that the investigators sought were “essential” to the probe and that requests like this were part of the “appropriate process” to obtain them.

The lawmakers want the tech giants to furnish documents that have been produced in relation to other competition probes and internal communications.

The letters that the committee sent also posed questions related to possible harms to competition in the market.

“While the House probe will not result in enforcement actions against the company, investigations by federal and state regulators could,” said the CNBC report on Wednesday.