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The Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives has written to the four big tech giants – Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google – asking for full information on its financial structures and e-mails exchanged for 10 years between the most senior leaders.
The bipartite committee collects data as part of its technology competition inquiry, prior to hearings and roundtables.
Some of the requested information is copied items such as lists of products and services, perceived competitors and the companies they purchased, organizational charts of the company's divisions, and copies of documents previously provided in response to antitrust investigations. earlier. But the big problem is internal communication between senior executives about particular competition issues.
For example, the committee appears to be questioning Amazon about its acquisition of Audible, Blink and AbeBooks, among others, and whether the internal conversations leading to the purchase decisions were based on a "competitive threat" that they could have represented.
In another example, Alphabet is tested for its purchase of Android and YouTube, and to determine if apps and services other than Alphabet have the same visibility in the Google Search and Play Store. In fact, the letters from the committee list by name the specific apps that have been removed or restricted by Google Play, Facebook and the Apple App Store, in order to know the reasoning behind their removal.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that a handful of businesses have gained a disproportionate share of online commerce and communications," said Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the committee. "It is becoming more and more difficult to use the Internet without using these services.The requested documents will allow the committee to better understand the extent to which these intermediaries enjoy market power, how they manage it. use, whether they use it or not, market power in a way that has harmed consumers and competition, and how Congress should react. "
"This information is critical to determining whether anti-competitive behavior is occurring, whether our antitrust agencies should investigate specific issues, and whether our antitrust laws need to be improved to better promote competition in digital markets," said Doug Collins. , member of the Judiciary Committee of the House.
Official requests for information were sent Friday to Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple) and Larry Page (Alphabet). Click on the links to read them in full.
Curiously for those working in archives, the committee wants all documents to be provided by October 14. ®
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