Sep 29, 2020 - Technology

Scoop: Lawmakers tee up hearing with academics ahead of antitrust report

Ashley Gold

A photo of Big Tech CEOs testifying via Zoom. — Big Tech CEOs testify before the House Judiciary antitrust panel in June. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.

Mostly academics will be testifying at Thursday's House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing, which will reveal where its year-long investigation into Big Tech and competition is going, a source familiar with the matter told Axios.

Why it matters: The hearing is the next step following testimony from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Sundar Pichai, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Apple's Tim Cook before the committee in July. A showing of academics and think-tank types signals the lawmakers are still sorting out competition theories and possible legislative fixes to perceived antitrust abuses.

Who's testifying:

Michael Kades, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Christopher Yoo, Penn Law School
William Baer, Brookings Institution
K. Sabeel Rahman, Brooklyn Law School
Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law School
Sally Hubbard, Open Markets Institute
Rachel Bovard, Conservative Partnership Institute
Tad Lipsky, George Mason University

The bottom line: The lineup includes some well-known voices who advocate for new antitrust laws to rein in tech giants, along with more conservative figures, some of whom are concerned more about content moderation than antitrust or may simply be less inclined to break up big companies.

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Scoop: Lawmakers tee up hearing with academics ahead of antitrust report

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