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Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee have asked Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google's parent company, as part of an antitrust investigation, the committee said Friday.
Among other things, the committee has been soliciting competition-related e-mails from executives and documents provided to US and international regulators over the past decade about the Clayton Act, which deals with the review of potentially anti-competitive mergers. according to a press release.
Shares of Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet were all slightly positive on Friday morning. Apple's shares lost about 1% after Goldman Sachs lowered its price target.
The application shows that the committee is conducting an antitrust review while federal regulators and Attorneys General of 50 states and territories prepare their own investigations. In letters to the CEOs of the four companies, the bipartisan group of committee leaders said the inquiry would focus on three elements. The first is "competition problems in digital markets", followed by "if dominant companies engage in anti-competitive behavior online" and finally, whether existing laws and their enforcement can effectively solve these problems.
Technical officials testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust in July, but the representative of the subcommittee, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., Said lawmakers still had need additional information.
"I appreciate the willingness of some companies in the technology sector to come and testify before our committee and answer their questions," said Sensenbrenner in a statement. "However, we still need more information about their business practices at this stage of fact finding this survey."
In an interview with "Squawk Box" on CNBC, the representative of the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins (R-GA), said the committee was not approaching the "investigation" with order of the day".
"What's important is what we see is that it's not, in my opinion, an attack," said Collins. "It's about questioning the normal surveillance on the market saying," What's going on and [are] do our antitrust laws work or is there something we need to look at? "
On the basis of the requested documents, the committee leaders seem to be interested in Facebook acquisitions, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Onavo web analytics company. Legislators have asked to see leaders' discussions about potential competitive threats that these services might pose to Facebook around the time of the deals.
On Amazon, lawmakers want to know more about how the company's algorithm accounts for its own products and the type of data available and undisclosed to sellers in its market. The committee also asked to participate in discussions on how teams from different divisions of Amazon, including Amazon Web Services, Amazon Marketplace and its voice product Alexa, share and use data. Legislators have also requested communications for executives related to Amazon's acquisitions, including Ring, PillPack and Audible.
Legislators also want to learn more about Google's reflections on its acquisitions of DoubleClick, YouTube, Android and others. They asked for information about Google's advertising activities, which is also the initial goal of the investigation by state attorneys general. Legislators were invited to check out discussions about Google's calculations for ad payments, including click-through rates. They also asked about "the prevalence of advertising fraud" on its ad tech services.
Committee members also requested information on the differences between Google and its products, such as its browser and applications, compared to those of its competitors. Like Amazon, lawmakers also want to know how Google's teams in different divisions share and use data, based on requests made in the letter.
On Apple, lawmakers have asked for information about the algorithm of its App Store and how it could be changed. The developers have already speculated that Apple favors its own apps in its App Store compared to those of its competitors. A New York Times article on the App Store algorithm released earlier this week revealed that Apple applications for some searches would rank above competitor applications, even when Apple apps were significantly less relevant. According to the Times, Apple has modified the algorithms to change this result, but two officials have denied the publication that the previous version of the algorithm had posed problem.
They also asked to see discussions on Apple's policies regarding the inclusion of links in the application to external payment systems and its revenue-sharing policy for in-app purchases. Apple's payment model for app developers, commonly referred to as "Apple tax" by critics, has been a major source of concern for companies such as Spotify, which has told European competition authorities that Apple advantage its own products through royalties.
Reaching a comment, a spokesman for Google has referred to a post published a week ago by the company's senior vice president of international affairs, Kent Walker.
"We have always worked constructively with regulators and we will continue to do so," Walker said in a message.
Amazon, Apple and Facebook do not immediately respond to requests for comments.
Jessica Bursztynsky of CBNBC contributed to this report.
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