Apple CEO Tim Cook Testifies in U.S. Antitrust Hearing
Apple CEO Tim Cook is today participating in an antitrust hearing with the U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee alongside Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The hearing was supposed to kick off at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time or 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, but it was delayed for a half hour to an hour. It can be watched live through the YouTube stream above.
Cook is expected to be grilled about Apple's App Store policies in regard to app rejection and competition, disputes with the FBI over encryption and law enforcement access to locked devices, Apple's relationship with China, and its App Store fees and subscription policies.
Cook was initially reluctant to participate in the hearing because he does not believe Apple should be grouped with Facebook, Amazon, and Google as an antitrust violator, but he was not able to avoid testifying after a threat of a subpoena from subcommittee chairman David Cicilline, who publicly criticized Apple's App Store fees.
Over the course of the last month, Cook has been preparing for the hearing, and Apple last week commissioned a third-party study on the App Store that found App Store fees to be in line with those charged by other digital marketplaces, which Cook is likely to cite. Cook's opening statement was shared yesterday, and can be read here.
We'll share highlights from the antitrust hearing covering what Cook has to say, but those interested in a complete picture of what happens at the hearing can watch live.
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