Collins Says U.S. Judiciary Cmte Looking into Business Practices of Major Tech Companies

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee is looking into concerns about possible anti-trust and privacy practices in the biggest social media and communications companies in the Country.

Last week, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued formal document requests and other requests for information from Amazon, Apple, Alphabet Inc., and Facebook about their business practices.

U.S. Congressman Doug Collins is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.

In an interview with CNBC, Collins said the information is key to determining whether anticompetitive behavior is occurring.

“We’re not coming at it with an agenda. We’re not saying, ‘here’s what we need to do in this competitive space in the anti-trust market place,'” Collins said. “We’re saying, ‘let’s take it a look at it.’ The industry has grown rapidly in the last 10-15 years. They have this dominant place in the market place. And so what we’re requesting is information on competitiveness, on any lawsuits that have been brought against them, how they interact with their competitors, how they interact with those who have issues with them, and also any interaction they’ve had with the Department of Justice and others.”

Collins said other answers the Committee is looking for is whether the federal antitrust enforcement agencies should investigate specific issues, and whether Congress needs to modernize the antitrust laws in order to better promote competition in the tech sector.

He said consumers are also concerned about privacy issues as it relates to the ever-growing social media ad tech platforms.

“I think all othem have diverse platforms, but they have similar interests,” he said. “I think that’s the thing we have to look at; is that in their respective divisions have dominated marketplaces; whether it be in apps, whether it be search, whether it be in social interaction. These are the kind of things that the American people are concerned about; not only in anti-trust, anti-competitive possibilties, but also in the privacy sector, which we’re going to be looking into as well.”

Earlier this year, the House Judiciary Committee opened a bipartisan investigation into the relationship between big tech and market competition.