Monday was supposed to be a historic day. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai - the CEOs of Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google-owned Alphabet - were to sit in front of the House's Subcommittee on Antitrust. However, according to the committee, the hearing is now being officially postponed. Late Thursday, a source familiar with the matter said that the hearing would very likely be delayed.
A planning conflict is to blame. The late John Lewis, a Democratic representative and civil rights activist who died of pancreatic cancer last week, will be in the Capitol rotunda on Monday, announced on Thursday.
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The technology giants should meet at 12 noon. A new appointment for the hearing had not yet been confirmed, the source had said. Axios previously reported that the hearing would likely be delayed.
The house is said to be off for the whole of August, so it is unclear whether the hearing could be postponed until after Labor Day.
Over the next few months, the antitrust hearing is expected to get four of the most powerful technology CEOs to defend allegations of monopolistic behavior. All four technology giants were reviewed last year by lawmakers and regulators who recently saw Silicon Valley in a far more positive light. Officials are now raising concerns about the growing dominance of these companies in the market, which could suppress competition.
During one Hearing of the committee in JanuarySmaller technology companies complained about unfair business practices by technology giants. Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos, told lawmakers that Google was trying to limit his company's innovations and wanted insights into Sonos' future product plans. Sonos sued Googleand claimed the company stole its wireless speaker technology. David Barnett, CEO of PopSockets, beat up Amazon for ignoring counterfeiting issues he had been raising for months and harassing him to lower his prices.
"There is such a dominant power in these companies that even as a company of our size, you feel you have no choice," said Spence.
The process of bringing all four CEOs to the committee was not without drama. Representative David Cicilline, who heads the House's subcommittee, threatened this in May Bezos appears at the antitrust hearing after sending one open letter to Bezos demands his testimony. Bezos agreed to appear in June.
CNET's Richard Nieva contributed to this report.
