Industry. They took questions about the use of thirdparty seller data and allegations of anticonservative bias. The subcommittee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any time. Welcome to todays hearing on marketing power. Amazon, apple, facebook, and google. I would like to remind members we have established a distribution list dedicated to circulating specific motions or other written materials members might want as part of our hearing today. If you would like to submit materials, submit them to the email address distributed to your offices. We will circulate materials as quickly as we can. Thatld also remind members face coverings are required for all meetings in an enclosed space such as Committee Hearings. I expect all members on both sides of the aisle to wear a mask except when you are speaking. I recognize myself for an opening bateman Opening Statement. This committee launched an investigation into Digital Markets to document competition problems in the Digital Economy and evaluate whether the current antitrust framework is able to address them. September 2019, the chairman and Ranking Members of the full committee and the subcommittee issued sweeping bipartisan requests for information to the firms that will testify at todays hearing. We have received millions of pages of evidence. Documents and submissions from Market Participants. We conducted hundreds of hours of interviews. We have held five hearings to examine the effects of online privacy,novation, data a free and diverse press, and independent businesses in the online marketplace. The result of 17 briefings and roundtables, 35 experts and stakeholders in support of our work. This has been bipartisan from the start. It has been an honor to work alongside my colleague of the subcommittees Ranking Member, and the Ranking Member of the full committee, doug collins. We have taken this work seriously and studied these issues carefully. Kimbaleague congressman recently commented, this is the most bipartisan effort have been involved with. The purpose of todays hearing is to examine the dominance of amazon, apple, facebook, and google. Amazon runs the Largest Online market place in america, capturing 70 of all online sales. It operates across a vast array of businesses from Cloud Computing and movie production to Transportation Logistics and Small Business funding. Amazon recently hit 1. 5 trillion, more than walmart, salesforce, ibm, and at sea combined. Apple is a dominant provider of smart phones with more than 100 million smartphone users in the United States as well. Apple sells services and apps including financial services, media, and games. Facebook is the Worlds Largest provider of social Networking Services with a Business Model that sells digital ads. Despite privacy scandals and recordbreaking fines, facebook continues to enjoy booming profits. Google is the worlds Largest OnlineSearch Engine, capturing more than 90 of searches online. It controls key technologies and digital ad markets and enjoys more than one billion users across six products including browsers, smartphones, and digital apps. , theseo the pandemic corporations already stood out as titans in our economy. In the wake of covid19, they are stronger and more powerful than ever. As families shift their work, shopping, and communication online, these giants stand to profit. Locally owned businesses meanwhile face an economic crisis unlike any in recent history. It is possible our economy will emerge this crisis more concentrated and consolidated than before. These companies serve as critical markers of commerce and commune occasion. Because they are so central to life, decisions have an outside effect on our economy and democracy. Any single action by one of these companies can affect hundreds of millions of us in profound and lasting ways. Hough these corporations we have observed common patterns and competition problems over the course of this investigation. Arst, each platform is bottleneck for a key channel of distribution whether they control access to information or a marketplace. These platforms have the incentive and ability to exploit this power. They can charge exorbitant fees, contracts,ressive and expected data from people that rely on them. Second, each of these platforms uses its infrastructure to survey other companies, and whether they might pose a competitive threat. Each platform has used this data to protect its power by cutting potential for rivals. These platforms abused their control over technologies to extend their power, whether through self referencing, predatory pricing, or requiring users to buy additional products. They have wielded their power in destructive ways to expand. Todays hearing will examine how each of these companies have used this playbook to maintain dominance and how their power affects our daily lives. Why does this matter . Many of the practices used by these companies have harmful economic effects. They discourage entrepreneurship, destroy jobs, and degrade quality. They have too much power. This power staves off competition and innovation. While these companies produce innovative products, their dominance is killing small andnesses, manufacturing, the engines of the american economy. Several of these have harvested and abused people data. When Everyday Americans learn how much of their data is being mined, they cant run away fast enough. In many cases there is no escape from the surveillance as there is no alternative. People are stuck with bad options. Open markets are predicated on the idea that if a company harms people, consumers, workers, and Business Partners will choose another option. That choice is no longer possible. I am confident addressing the problems we see in these markets will lead to a stronger, more vibrant economy. Concentrated economic power leads to concentrated political power. This investigation goes to the heart of whether we as a people govern ourselves or whether we let ourselves be governed by monopolies. American democracy has been at war against monopoly power. We have recognized concentrated markets and concentrated political control are incompatible with democratic ideals. Be at the railroads or the oil tycoons or at t and, we took action to ensure no private corporation controls our economy are democracy. We face similar challenges today. These platforms enjoy the power to pick winners and losers, shakedown Small Businesses, and enrich themselves while choking the competitors. Their ability to dictate terms, call the shots, a bend sectors sectors, represent the power of a private government. With that i recognize the Ranking Member of the subcommittee for his Opening Statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the ceos for working with the subcommittee to appear today. The Memorial Service for john lewis on monday required our attention. This hearing is vital to our oversight work and i appreciate your flexibility. Throughout my time in congress, i have prioritized one of our seminal responsibilities. Part of that is the periodic review of the effectiveness of our laws. I think it is a good and timely thing that we are now turning our attention to technological innovations, which brings us to all of your companies. Our country is stricken by a pandemic, a dramatic illustration of the extraordinary reliance americans have on technological innovations. These unexpected and unprecedented times, your companies have provided innovations so our nations can meet a myriad of our daily needs. Virtual business with doctors, connecting socially distant families, or keeping our small and Large Businesses connected. Withresponsibility comes increased scrutiny of your dominance in the marketplace. I want to reiterate something i said throughout this investigation. Being big is not inherently bad. Quite the opposite. In america you should be rewarded for success. We are here to better understand the role your companies have in the digital marketplace and importantly, the effect they have on consumers and the public at large. My colleagues and i have a great interest about what your companies do with accumulated power. We also know the marketplace is driven by data. It follows that those who control the data control the marketplace. There are broader questions surrounding data. Who owns the data . Do companiesbility have to share it with their customers or competitors . What is the fair market value of that data . Is there anything monopolistic in acquiring this data . What about monetizing it . These are complex issues congress, regulators, even your own companies are wrestling with. Since the investigation began, we have heard from many who are quick to say your Successful Companies have grown too large. Since this hearing was announced it seems those complaints have gotten even louder. While i find these complaints informative, i do not plan on litigating each of these complaints today. Antitrust law and the consumer has served this country well for over a century. Laws have provided the framework to make way for our most successful and innovative companies. I will be the first to highlight that. However, as the business landscape evolves, we must ensure our existing antitrust are primed to meet the needs of our country and its consumers. I share the concern that market dominance in the Digital Space is right for abuse. Particularly when it comes to free speech. As we know Companies Like facebook, youtube, and twitter, have become the Public Square for political debate to unfold in real time. ,eports that dissenting views often conservative views, are isgeted and censored as soon troubling. Consumers are conservatives are consumers, too. They need the protection of antitrust laws. The power to influence debate carries with it responsibilities. Let the facts be our guide. Your companies are large. That is not a problem. Your companies are successful. That is not a problem either. I want to leave here today with a more complete picture of how your individual Companies Use your size, success, and power, and what it means to the american consumer. I yelled back the balance of my time. Thehe chair now recognizes gentleman from new york, mr. Nadler. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank you, Ranking Member, and the subcommittee members, for have put into this investigation. I appreciate you calling this hearing so we can hear from amazon, apple, facebook, and google. I look forward to important dialogue. Today it is effectively impossible to use the incident the internet without using the services of these companies. Concentration of power in any form, especially economic or political power, is dangerous to a democratic society. That is why we must examine these and other companies. Lawsnsure our antitrust need. The tools they this committee has completed a yearlong investigation into competition. They are the lens through which i approach todays hearing. The internet has delivered an arms benefits to americans including economic ash enormous benefits to americans including economic opportunities. There is growing evidence that a handful of corporations have captured an outsized share of online commerce. Providing retail, online computing,cloud which hundreds of thousands of other businesses rely on, these essentialcomprise the infrastructure for the 21st century. These companies have the ability to control not just the markets. The problem is not unlike what we faced 130 years ago when railroads transformed american life. Creating a key chokehold the railroad monopolies could exploit. They charged tolls, extorting producers who relied on their rails. They discriminated on farmers picking winners and losers across the economy. Could use their dominance in transportation to pay for their own services. These tactics by the railroads spread despair across the country. Congress initiated an investigation to document these problems and enacted legislative solutions to outlaw anticompetitive practices of the Railroad Industry and other industries dominated by monopolies and trusts. Congressional oversight and legislative reform could not prevent the inexorable arrival of new technologies of human progress. Instead, congress recognizes these powerful new technologies have reshaped the balance of power in our economy and it was the role of congress to ensure the new monopolists do not abuse their power. The Digital Economy has similar challenges. While the Underlying Technology is different, new intermediaries have the ability to control access to critical markets. If you are an independent merchant, developer, or content producer, you are reliance on powerful intermediaries. , many the economy businesses live in fear of exclusion from these platforms. Effect some companies have shared with the committee during this investigation. s currentmittee review of competition continues a long tradition in this committee of oversight and the antitrust laws in our economy. From the days of chairman emmanuel seller, the House Judiciary Committee and antitrust subcommittee have conducted inquiries into industrial sectors showing signs of consolidation and anticompetitive conduct. Continued on a bipartisan basis over the years. The 1950 report from the subcommittee on monopoly power describe their mandate, quote, it is the providence of the subcommittee to investigate factors which eliminate competition, enter Small Businesses, or promote undue concentration of economic power. To make recommendations based on those findings. Following this proud tradition with industry and government witnesses, consultation with subject Matter Experts and with careful and any painstaking review of large evidence provided by industry participants and regulators. Themately it is responsibility of the antitrust Enforcement Agency to enforce the law. Congress has an obligation to set whether existing antitrust laws and that will to enforce those laws and policies are adequate to address the issues facing our country and to take action if they are found to be lacking. Given a dominant role that these four Companies Plan our economy and society, it is only reasonable that our careful examination of the antitrust laws begin with them. I appreciate the participation of all of our witnesses today. An investigation would not be complete, it has hardly begun without hearing from the companies. I yield back the balance of my time. I think the gentleman and i recognize the gentleman from ohio. Jordan i want to think the Ranking Member. Im not sure how me more committing Committee Hearings we will have this congress, but i want to thank him for his great work for the constituents of his district in wisconsin for this many years and for the work that he has done for this entire committee. Ill just cut to the taste chase, big tech is out to get conservatives. Thats a fact. July 20, 2020, remove the home pages of the daily caller. Last night they censored bright art. June 16, 2020, google threatened to defund the federalist. Google and youtube announced a the contentring that conflicts with recommendations of World Health Organizations. Think about that. World health organizations. The organizations that lie to us. If you contradict something they say, they can life for china. You Say Something against them, you get censored. June 29, 2020, amazon bands 20 amazon bands President Trumps account on twitch. Amazon bands a book critical of the coronavirus lockdown written by a conservative commentator. May 27, 2020, amazon wont let you give to the Family ResearchAlliance Defense fund, but you can give to planned parenthood. Facebook, june 19, 2020, takes down pose from President Trumps reelection campaign. Facebook silences a prolife organization advertisement. Facebook former facebook employee admits facebook routinely suppresses conservative views. And i have not even mentioned twitter. We actually invited, mr. Chairman. We asked you guys to invite him as one of our witnesses. You guys said no. They shadow bent they shadow band to members of this committee. , only four,senate only for get shadow band. What mr. Dorsey tell us. He said it was just a glitch in our algorithm. I asked him what did you put in the algorithm. A nickel for every time i heard it was just a glitch, i would not be as wealthy of our witnesses, but i would be doing all right. We have heard the excuse time and time again. Twitter sensors President Trumps tweet on the right to minneapolis. Twitter censures the white house for quoting been a president s comments about the right to minneapolis. Sensors the president again for saying he will enforce the rule of law against any autonomous zone and washington, d. C. , itcan tweet all you want happened in seattle but the president will not have one in washington, d. C. Cannot do that. You give band and censored. Hes going to have one in washington, d. C. , oh, no, you cant do that. You get banned. Censored. Dozens of examples. I forgot one. I forgot one. Just last week, july 21st. July 21st. The leader of iran, Islamic Republic of