House panel to discuss Big Tech's impact on privacy, antitrust

[September 06, 2019]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives' antitrust panel will hold a hearing next week to discuss the effect of consumer data collection by big tech platforms, like Alphabet's Google and Amazon, on online competition.

The House Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee will hear from Rohit Chopra, who is on the Federal Trade Commission, as well as experts from Harvard Kennedy School and the American Enterprise Institute.

The hearing is set for Sept. 12, and is one of three upcoming sessions focused on antitrust.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel will meet September 24 to discuss concerns that tech giants seek to buy smaller rivals in order to head off competition.

The same senate panel meets on September 17 for an antitrust oversight hearing, with FTC Chairman Joe Simons and the Justice Department's Makan Delrahim, head of the antitrust division, the only witnesses.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.