Hearing before Congress: Tech giants to talk to small

In the American Congress took place on Wednesday in a historic hearing: The Chairman of the Board of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Alphabet, four of the largest technology corporations in the world, testified before a Committee of the house of representatives. A similarly star-studded hearing with representatives of the technology industry, it should have never been. The event should turn first and foremost to the "dominance" of these companies. David Cicilline, the Chairman of the Board, called the companies "the Emperor of the Online economy", before accusing them of abuse of their Position and said: "you have simply said too much." The Manager tried to on the other hand, small-talk and fierce competition in their industries to add. Sundar Pichai, chief Executive of Alphabet Holding company, the Internet group Google said: "Google's continued success is not guaranteed."

Roland Lindner

economic correspondent in New York.

Tim Cook of Apple described the Smartphone market, where the company is represented with his iPhone, as a "street fight for market share". Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said that the company has less than a one percent share of the global retail market and was only half as large as Walmart. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg led a number of competitors in certain areas, either the larger and faster growth achieved, including Google, Amazon, or even the emerging Smartphone App Tiktok. In his before the appearance of widespread speech text, he pointed out, however, that he wanted to let the sheer size alone is not the occasion for criticism as follows: "as I understand our laws, companies are not bad, just because they are big."

preparations in a lawyer's office

to spread All of the managers gave themselves up to the effort, Patriotism. "The Tech industry is an American success story," said Zuckerberg. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, "this great Nation" support the risk-loving entrepreneur, and it was no coincidence that Amazon is here. Some of the managers also pointed to your personal humble roots, Bezos told by his parents and grandparents.

The hearing had been due to the Corona, with the crisis in an unusual Format: The four Top-managers came to Washington, but were connected via video conference and raised their Hand to the traditional vow from the distance. The Congress Committee has started a little more than a year of investigations, the power to the market power of the major technology groups in turn. In this time he has led hundreds of hours of Interviews and 1.3 million documents on the company gives. The consultation with the group leaders is the culmination of these investigations. The panel intends to publish in the next few months, a report with his findings. And all of this could possibly be the basis of new regulations or ongoing antitrust investigations of other institutions of American government influence. The Ministry of justice and consumer protection authority, the FTC are currently in the midst of such investigations. According to media reports, the Ministry of justice could submit to even this summer, an antitrust lawsuit against Google.