A U.S. House Judiciary Committee antitrust hearing at which big tech CEOs – including Apple head Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – are scheduled to testify has reportedly been postponed.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNBC reports the hearing has been delayed as the date conflicts with a service for late Rep. John Lewis. The decision has yet to be confirmed by the powers that be.
Civil rights icon Lewis died last Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday announced the late congressman will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol following an invitation-only ceremony on Monday at 2 p.m. Eastern. The tech leaders had been scheduled to testify on Monday, beginning at noon.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Apple CEO Tim Cook and the CEOs of other large tech firms would testify in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee antitrust probe on July 27.
Congress is investigating whether the largest tech companies are pushing unfair competition against small companies and whether these decisions affect consumers. The committee’s concerns about Apple focuses on the company’s App Store and the cut the company takes from sales in the store as well as in-app payments and subscriptions, as well as the so-called “Sherlocking” of third-party apps and systematic removal of parental control apps.
Cook, who has reportedly spent the better part of July preparing for his testimony, was initially reluctant to participate. Cook believed Apple “didn’t belong with a group of companies increasingly viewed as antitrust malefactors,” a report from The Information said.
No word on when the postponed hearing will be rescheduled.