Amazon expands ‘Project Zero’ anti-counterfeit program that Bezos cited in antitrust hearing

Photo: Julie Clopper / Shutterstock.com.

Amazon is taking its “Project Zero” anti-counterfeit program to seven additional countries, expanding a program designed to help brands fight fake products, amid heightened scrutiny of knock-offs on its e-commerce platform.

Project Zero will now be available to sellers on the Amazon online stores in Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, bringing the total to 17 countries, the company announced Monday night. Launched last year, the program is already available in the U.S., UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Japan, India, Mexico, and Canada.

Amazon says more than 10,000 brands, ranging from small companies to large global retailers, have enrolled in the program, which gets its name from Amazon’s stated goal of zero counterfeit products on its platform. The company cited the examples of Arduino, BMW, ChessCentral, LifeProof, OtterBox, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Veet as participants.

Counterfeits were one of the topics that legislators grilled Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about in a recent Congressional antitrust hearing with other major tech CEOs.

“Amazon has said it’s fixing its counterfeit problem, but counterfeiting seems to be getting worse, not better,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, asking Bezos why Amazon doesn’t do more to fight counterfeits.

He added, “Amazon acts like it’s not responsible for counterfeits being sold by third-party sellers on its platform, and we’ve heard that Amazon puts the burden and cost on brand owners to police Amazon’s site, even though Amazon makes money when a counterfeit good is sold on its site.”

In response, Bezos outlined the company’s fight against counterfeits and disputed the notion that counterfeits are ultimately a benefit to Amazon.

“I think this is an incredibly important issue and one that we work very hard on. Counterfeits are a scourge,” he said. “It does not help us earn trust with customers. It’s bad for customers. It’s bad for honest third-party sellers. We do a lot to prevent counterfeiting. We have a team of more than a thousand people that does this. We invest hundreds of millions of dollars in systems that do this.”

As an example, Bezos pointed to Project Zero, saying it “helps brands serialize individual products, which really helps with counterfeiting.”

That was a reference to one of Project Zero’s three main components, in which brands apply a unique code in the packaging or product to allow Amazon to confirm the authenticity of individual products. Project Zero also includes self-service tools for brands to remove listings from Amazon.com, and technology that automatically identifies suspicious listings.

“Amazon is committed to protecting our customers and the brands we collaborate with worldwide,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon vice president of Worldwide Customer Trust and Partner Support, in the news release announcing the expansion Monday night. “Project Zero has been a leap forward in protecting brands, especially for those that use all three of its components.”

In the hearing, Rep. Johnson cited prior testimony from David Barnett, the CEO of PopSockets brand phone holders, who had said in an earlier hearing that Amazon listed counterfeit versions of the product ahead of genuine ones, and only stopped the practice after PopSockets committed to spend $2 million on advertising.

“That’s unacceptable,” Bezos said, promising to look into the specifics of the PopSockets claims, which received widespread coverage earlier this year. “If those are the facts, and if someone somewhere inside Amazon said, ‘Buy X dollars in ads, and then we’ll help you with your counterfeit problem,’ that is unacceptable.”

Even if Amazon makes money in the short term on counterfeit goods, it’s ultimately not in its best interest to allow fake goods, Bezos said. “I would much rather lose a sale than lose a customer,” he said.

As noted by Bezos in the hearing, the company announced the formation of an internal “Counterfeit Crimes Unit” earlier this year as part of its initiatives.

Amazon has also filed a series of lawsuits over counterfeit goods in recent years, most recently joining Italian luxury fashion brand Valentino to pursue an alleged counterfeiter of the company’s Rockstud shoes. Amazon has filed similar suits in the past in partnership with companies including Nite Ize, a maker of mobile accessories and LED products; Vera Bradley, designer of purses and accessories; and high-end phone case company OtterBox.

The company has sought to avoid legal liability for counterfeit goods sold on its platform. In what became a landmark case, Amazon was sued in 2013 by Seattle-based novelty pillowcase maker Milo & Gabby over knock-offs sold by other companies on Amazon.com. Courts sided with Amazon’s argument that the sellers of the counterfeits were the ones who should be held liable.

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Is he in a barn? Where are the books? Hearing exposes design lapses in offices of tech CEOs

(House Judiciary screengrabs via YouTube)

Seated in front of the world (virtually) during a House Judiciary Committee antitrust hearing, the CEOs of the richest technology companies on the planet offered a window into their “offices” on Wednesday. It appears all design resources are being saved for websites and products.

The hearing was a unique opportunity to hear from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai. The CEOs were in the hot seat. The hot seat just looked like it was in a garage or suburban home office.

Apple stores are a design-infused mecca for fans of the tech giant’s iPhones, iMacs and other products. The company built a massive “spaceship” as its new HQ. On Wednesday, Cook sat in front of some wilty plants, stuck in front of what looked like a makeshift room partition. Someone get a bowl of apples.

Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The Google homepage often features inspiring illustrations known as “Google Doodles” highlighting important dates in history. Someone should have doodled a more inspiring backdrop for the CEO. The sideboard behind Pichai featured a few vases, a plant that was probably fake and purchased at IKEA and a stack of wimpy books that may have been assembled 30 seconds before air time. While there was a textured wall piece, did no one think a Google Home smart speaker would have made sense? “Hey Google, play something soothing.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Someone told Zuckerberg all tech companies get started in a garage — and it looks like he stayed there 16 years into Facebook’s reign as social media powerhouse. Or maybe it’s a horse barn and he’s just rubbing it in when it comes to how rich he is.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Bezos, who finally got a question thrown his way after the committee came back from a break, was seated in front of a bookcase that appeared to have almost no books in it. This is not an unsubstantial home-decor lapse for a guy who became the richest person on the planet based on an idea to SELL BOOKS. Guess this Bezos lair won’t be showing up on Bookcase Credibility. There were a couple vases, maybe a trophy? For a space geek, this space could have used a little Blue Origin rocket model.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Twitter was not at the hearing, but users had plenty to say on the platform about what was unfolding on television. Here’s the verdict from “Room Rater”:

Love the texture. Great composition. The vase and plant are perfect. Strong 9/10. It would be a ten with more color. @sundarpichai pic.twitter.com/5F2EPzKaWG

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) July 29, 2020

Tim Apple needs some work. Plants help but that wall needs a patch. Of art. Depth would help, too. 7/10 @tim_cook pic.twitter.com/VitqU7J2av

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) July 29, 2020

Hostage video. Putin has not released him but has allowed him to loosen tie. That’s nice. 2/10 @finkd pic.twitter.com/6zhltrPTxd

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) July 29, 2020

Back off the soft focus. Add books. Remember books? Order a couple ring lights. Here’s one. You gave it 4.5 stars. You get 6/10. @JeffBezos pic.twitter.com/X2H8dB0aeX

— Room Rater (@ratemyskyperoom) July 29, 2020

And some other chatter across the web:

pic.twitter.com/rHWxUjLoET

— Anna Wiener (@annawiener) July 29, 2020

is this bothering anyone else pic.twitter.com/AZ4fUtIno6

— Ryan Mac ?? (@RMac18) July 29, 2020

Please add your own rules to today’s drinking game. A shot every time…

– Zuckerberg: “We have more work to do…”
– Cook: “Greatest products”
– Bezos: “Customer”
– Pichai: “Information”

— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) July 29, 2020

The committee just took a break because one of the most powerful tech CEOs in the world is having technical difficulties

— The Verge (@verge) July 29, 2020

Committee has now (no joke) spent more time questioning Dorsey, who is not there, than Bezos.

— Scott Galloway (@profgalloway) July 29, 2020

Jeff Bezos hasn’t been asked a single question by Congress yet, so the world’s richest man is having a snack… pic.twitter.com/zMZ4iEuHyY

— Claire Reilly (@reillystyley) July 29, 2020

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Amazon releases CEO Jeff Bezos’ opening statement ahead of landmark antitrust hearing

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in June 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will point to the “strikingly large and extraordinarily competitive” global retail market in his opening statement to a U.S. House antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday, making the case that the tech giant he founded as a modest online bookseller more than two decades ago is but a bit player in the larger world of commerce.

“Every day, Amazon competes against large, established players like Target, Costco, Kroger, and, of course, Walmart — a company more than twice Amazon’s size,” Bezos will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the company Tuesday afternoon. “And while we have always focused on producing a great customer experience for retail sales done primarily online, sales initiated online are now an even larger growth area for other stores.”

It remains to be seen whether Amazon can persuade lawmakers to accept its definition of the market, given its status as one of the world’s most valuable companies, led by the globe’s richest person. But the opening statement stakes a clear position on the critical question of whether Amazon has attained enough market power to warrant an antitrust crackdown.

“Amazon accounts for less than 1% of the $25 trillion global retail market and less than 4% of retail in the U.S.,” Bezos will say, according to the prepared remarks. “Unlike industries that are winner-take-all, there’s room in retail for many winners.”

On a key issue at the heart of the inquiry, the company will tout the benefits of its online marketplace for third-party sellers. Bezos’ opening statement contrasts sharply with the image of the company that has emerged from reports, most notably an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, that the company has leveraged proprietary data to compete unfairly with those sellers.

“We didn’t have to invite third-party sellers into the store. We could have kept this valuable real estate for ourselves,” Bezos says in the statement. “But we committed to the idea that over the long term it would increase selection for customers, and that more satisfied customers would be great for both third-party sellers and for Amazon. And that’s what happened.”

Toward the end of the statement, Bezos repeats a sentiment that he has expressed in the past, dating back to the company’s 2018 shareholder meeting: “Let me close by saying that I believe Amazon should be scrutinized. We should scrutinize all large institutions, whether they’re companies, government agencies, or non-profits. Our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors.”

Bezos is set to testify via video conference Wednesday in addition to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Read the full text of Bezos’ prepared remarks.

Support independent journalism at a time when trusted storytelling and community engagement is more important than ever.

Join today!

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Big Tech’s big week: Historic antitrust hearing and record profits put industry giants in spotlight

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos answers questions via video during this week’s landmark antitrust hearing.

Big Tech spent back-to-back days in the national spotlight this week between a long-anticipated Congressional hearing and second-quarter earnings reports.

The juxtaposed events paint a revealing picture of the risks and opportunities companies like Amazon face as they field accusations that they’ve grown too powerful while raking in record profits from customers who rely on their services more than ever.

We discuss this inflection point for Big Tech, Amazon’s blockbuster profits, plus the NBA’s partnership with Microsoft Teams, on this week’s GeekWire podcast:

The House antitrust subcommittee interviewed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, along with Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg during a wide-ranging virtual hearing on the power of Big Tech.

Lawmakers grilled Bezos on Amazon’s treatment of third-party sellers, how it prioritized “essential items” during the coronavirus crisis, policing counterfeit goods, and more. They didn’t manage to get Bezos to admit anything particularly incriminating, but his inability to confidently deny their claims about Amazon using its might to compete with third parties spoke volumes. And while members of Congress don’t have the ability to enforce existing antitrust law, they can rewrite those laws if they find them inadequate for the digital age.

Meanwhile, customers are relying on Amazon more than ever — and it is showing up on the company’s bottom line. The Seattle tech giant blew past Wall Street expectations for its second quarter, reporting $88.9 billion in revenue and $5.2 billion in profits, despite spending $4 billion on COVID-19 initiatives. Amazon also confirmed it has grown to more than 1 million employees and seasonal workers around the world for the first time during Thursday’s earnings call.

During the hearing, Bezos claimed that Amazon has become a lifeline to customers during the pandemic because of its scale, which also allows the company to hire thousands while others are laying off workers across the country.

But critics want Amazon to invest more of its profits into wages and benefits for employees on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis. Amazon declined to say if it will reinstate its previous hazard pay for its logistics workers or issue additional bonuses.

Listen above or subscribe to GeekWire in any podcast app.

Appearing this week are GeekWire’s Todd Bishop, Monica Nickelsburg and John Cook. Podcast produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

View the original article here

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Watch: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google CEOs testify before Congress in historic antitrust hearing

The top executives at four of the world’s largest and most powerful technology companies are testifying Wednesday before Congress in the culmination of a year-long antitrust inquiry.

The House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust arm will grill Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Sundar Pichai on the power their companies wield in the tech sector.

“Our founders would not bow before a king nor should we bow before the emperors of a digital economy,” said Rep. David Cicilline, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, in opening remarks.

The executives are testifying remotely due to the ongoing coronavirus threat, creating a different dynamic than the blockbuster hearings of the past, like Zuckerberg’s testimony on election interference in 2018. Cicilline reminded the CEOs that they are not allowed to take input from their teams during testimony, but it isn’t clear how or if the committee is enforcing that rule.

Early questioning focused on Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, Apple’s treatment of third-party app developers, and Google’s dominance in search. More than an hour into the hearing, lawmakers still hadn’t posed any questions to Bezos, even though it is the Amazon chief’s first time testifying before Congress.

After nearly two hours, the first question for Bezos came from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington who represents Amazon’s hometown, Seattle.

“The issue that we’re concerned with here his very simple,” she said. “You have access to data that far exceeds the sellers on your platform with whom you compete … you have access to the entirety of sellers’ pricing and inventory — information past, present, and future — and you dictate the participation of third-party sellers on your platform, so you can set the rules of the game for your competitors but not follow those rules yourself. Do you think that’s fair to the mom and pop businesses who can sell on your platform?”

Underlying Jayapal’s line of questioning is a Wall Street Journal investigation from April that found Amazon uses detailed data on third-party sellers in its marketplace to inform the development of in-house products.

Bezos said Amazon has a policy prohibiting such use of seller data but, “I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated.”

Jayapal was following up on testimony that Amazon attorney Nate Sutton gave one year ago before the same committee claiming the company does not use individual seller data to inform its private-label product strategy.

Jayapal also grilled Zuckerberg on its acquisition strategy, accusing Facebook of threatening to copy Instagram and Snapchat while in discussions about buying them.

“You’ve used Facebook’s power to threaten smaller competitors and ensure that you always get your way,” she said. “These tactics increase your dominance … Facebook’s model makes it impossible for new companies to flourish successfully.”

Zuckerberg said he did not remember threatening competitors and defended the practice of developing features that consumers were demanding at the time.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon raised a controversial price war between Amazon and Diapers.com that ultimately ended in Amazon acquiring the competitor’s parent company and then shutting it down. Scanlon claimed Amazon lowered prices on diapers to drive the competitor out of business and then raised them when the competitive threat was eliminated.

“I don’t remember that at all,” Bezos said. “What I remember is that we matched competitor prices.”

The long-awaited hearing comes as the companies in question field investigations into alleged anti-competitive behavior from regulators in the United States and abroad.

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have divvied up the four companies as they investigate whether antitrust law has been violated. The House began its own inquiry a year ago and several states are also looking into the dominance of the nation’s largest tech companies.

We’ll be following along and updating this story throughout the day. Check back for highlights and analysis from the historic hearing and read prepared remarks from Bezos, Cook, Zuckerberg, and Pichai.

View the original article here

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Amazon releases CEO Jeff Bezos’ opening statement ahead of landmark antitrust hearing

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in June 2019. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will point to the “strikingly large and extraordinarily competitive” global retail market in his opening statement to a U.S. House antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday, making the case that the tech giant he founded as a modest online bookseller more than two decades ago is but a bit player in the larger world of commerce.

“Every day, Amazon competes against large, established players like Target, Costco, Kroger, and, of course, Walmart — a company more than twice Amazon’s size,” Bezos will say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks released by the company Tuesday afternoon. “And while we have always focused on producing a great customer experience for retail sales done primarily online, sales initiated online are now an even larger growth area for other stores.”

It remains to be seen whether Amazon can persuade lawmakers to accept its definition of the market, given its status as one of the world’s most valuable companies, led by the globe’s richest person. But the opening statement stakes a clear position on the critical question of whether Amazon has attained enough market power to warrant an antitrust crackdown.

“Amazon accounts for less than 1% of the $25 trillion global retail market and less than 4% of retail in the U.S.,” Bezos will say, according to the prepared remarks. “Unlike industries that are winner-take-all, there’s room in retail for many winners.”

On a key issue at the heart of the inquiry, the company will tout the benefits of its online marketplace for third-party sellers. Bezos’ opening statement contrasts sharply with the image of the company that has emerged from reports, most notably an investigation by the Wall Street Journal, that the company has leveraged proprietary data to compete unfairly with those sellers.

“We didn’t have to invite third-party sellers into the store. We could have kept this valuable real estate for ourselves,” Bezos says in the statement. “But we committed to the idea that over the long term it would increase selection for customers, and that more satisfied customers would be great for both third-party sellers and for Amazon. And that’s what happened.”

Toward the end of the statement, Bezos repeats a sentiment that he has expressed in the past, dating back to the company’s 2018 shareholder meeting: “Let me close by saying that I believe Amazon should be scrutinized. We should scrutinize all large institutions, whether they’re companies, government agencies, or non-profits. Our responsibility is to make sure we pass such scrutiny with flying colors.”

Bezos is set to testify via video conference Wednesday in addition to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google/Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Read the full text of Bezos’ prepared remarks.

Support independent journalism at a time when trusted storytelling and community engagement is more important than ever.

Join today!

View the original article here

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Big Tech’s big week: Historic antitrust hearing and record profits put industry giants in spotlight

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos answers questions via video during this week’s landmark antitrust hearing.

Big Tech spent back-to-back days in the national spotlight this week between a long-anticipated Congressional hearing and second-quarter earnings reports.

The juxtaposed events paint a revealing picture of the risks and opportunities companies like Amazon face as they field accusations that they’ve grown too powerful while raking in record profits from customers who rely on their services more than ever.

We discuss this inflection point for Big Tech, Amazon’s blockbuster profits, plus the NBA’s partnership with Microsoft Teams, on this week’s GeekWire podcast:

The House antitrust subcommittee interviewed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, along with Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg during a wide-ranging virtual hearing on the power of Big Tech.

Lawmakers grilled Bezos on Amazon’s treatment of third-party sellers, how it prioritized “essential items” during the coronavirus crisis, policing counterfeit goods, and more. They didn’t manage to get Bezos to admit anything particularly incriminating, but his inability to confidently deny their claims about Amazon using its might to compete with third parties spoke volumes. And while members of Congress don’t have the ability to enforce existing antitrust law, they can rewrite those laws if they find them inadequate for the digital age.

Meanwhile, customers are relying on Amazon more than ever — and it is showing up on the company’s bottom line. The Seattle tech giant blew past Wall Street expectations for its second quarter, reporting $88.9 billion in revenue and $5.2 billion in profits, despite spending $4 billion on COVID-19 initiatives. Amazon also confirmed it has grown to more than 1 million employees and seasonal workers around the world for the first time during Thursday’s earnings call.

During the hearing, Bezos claimed that Amazon has become a lifeline to customers during the pandemic because of its scale, which also allows the company to hire thousands while others are laying off workers across the country.

But critics want Amazon to invest more of its profits into wages and benefits for employees on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis. Amazon declined to say if it will reinstate its previous hazard pay for its logistics workers or issue additional bonuses.

Listen above or subscribe to GeekWire in any podcast app.

Appearing this week are GeekWire’s Todd Bishop, Monica Nickelsburg and John Cook. Podcast produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

View the original article here

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Watch: Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google CEOs testify before Congress in historic antitrust hearing

The top executives at four of the world’s largest and most powerful technology companies are testifying Wednesday before Congress in the culmination of a year-long antitrust inquiry.

The House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust arm will grill Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Google’s Sundar Pichai on the power their companies wield in the tech sector.

“Our founders would not bow before a king nor should we bow before the emperors of a digital economy,” said Rep. David Cicilline, chair of the antitrust subcommittee, in opening remarks.

The executives are testifying remotely due to the ongoing coronavirus threat, creating a different dynamic than the blockbuster hearings of the past, like Zuckerberg’s testimony on election interference in 2018. Cicilline reminded the CEOs that they are not allowed to take input from their teams during testimony, but it isn’t clear how or if the committee is enforcing that rule.

Early questioning focused on Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, Apple’s treatment of third-party app developers, and Google’s dominance in search. More than an hour into the hearing, lawmakers still hadn’t posed any questions to Bezos, even though it is the Amazon chief’s first time testifying before Congress.

After nearly two hours, the first question for Bezos came from Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington who represents Amazon’s hometown, Seattle.

“The issue that we’re concerned with here his very simple,” she said. “You have access to data that far exceeds the sellers on your platform with whom you compete … you have access to the entirety of sellers’ pricing and inventory — information past, present, and future — and you dictate the participation of third-party sellers on your platform, so you can set the rules of the game for your competitors but not follow those rules yourself. Do you think that’s fair to the mom and pop businesses who can sell on your platform?”

Underlying Jayapal’s line of questioning is a Wall Street Journal investigation from April that found Amazon uses detailed data on third-party sellers in its marketplace to inform the development of in-house products.

Bezos said Amazon has a policy prohibiting such use of seller data but, “I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated.”

Jayapal was following up on testimony that Amazon attorney Nate Sutton gave one year ago before the same committee claiming the company does not use individual seller data to inform its private-label product strategy.

Jayapal also grilled Zuckerberg on its acquisition strategy, accusing Facebook of threatening to copy Instagram and Snapchat while in discussions about buying them.

“You’ve used Facebook’s power to threaten smaller competitors and ensure that you always get your way,” she said. “These tactics increase your dominance … Facebook’s model makes it impossible for new companies to flourish successfully.”

Zuckerberg said he did not remember threatening competitors and defended the practice of developing features that consumers were demanding at the time.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon raised a controversial price war between Amazon and Diapers.com that ultimately ended in Amazon acquiring the competitor’s parent company and then shutting it down. Scanlon claimed Amazon lowered prices on diapers to drive the competitor out of business and then raised them when the competitive threat was eliminated.

“I don’t remember that at all,” Bezos said. “What I remember is that we matched competitor prices.”

The long-awaited hearing comes as the companies in question field investigations into alleged anti-competitive behavior from regulators in the United States and abroad.

The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have divvied up the four companies as they investigate whether antitrust law has been violated. The House began its own inquiry a year ago and several states are also looking into the dominance of the nation’s largest tech companies.

We’ll be following along and updating this story throughout the day. Check back for highlights and analysis from the historic hearing and read prepared remarks from Bezos, Cook, Zuckerberg, and Pichai.

View the original article here

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Antitrust hearing with CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google will likely be delayed

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaking at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. (Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Photo / Gary Cameron)

A hotly anticipated House antitrust hearing with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google set for Monday will likely be delayed according to reports from CNBC, The Verge, and Axios.

The hearing is expected to be postponed due to memorial services for the late Rep. John Lewis next week. The civil rights champion will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol and a ceremony is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai were set to testify Monday before the House antitrust subcommittee on market dominance in the tech sector, the culmination of an inquiry into the companies they run that has lasted for more than a year. It is not clear when the new hearing date will be scheduled but Axios reports the committee is looking at the week of August 3.

The executives are expected to attend the hearing via video call due to the ongoing public health risk. It will be the first time all four CEOs have appeared together to address concerns about anti-competitive behavior in the tech industry. It will also be the first time Bezos testifies before Congress. The four tech giants are under antitrust scrutiny from several government entities in the U.S. and abroad.

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