Bloomberg reports that Apple will send its Chief Compliance Officer, Kyle Andeer to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights on April 21. In a letter written to Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, the Cupertino tech giant confirmed the company’s representation at the hearing.
Earlier, Apple had refused to send a witness to the hearing saying that it was occupied with the Epic Games lawsuit. But unsatisfied with the company’s response, the chairing senators urged Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook to provide a witness to testify before the Subcommittee in a timely manner. The letter explained that the majority of mobile apps are downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, therefore, “Apple’s power over the cost, distribution, and availability of mobile applications on the Apple devices used by millions of consumers raises serious competition issues that are of interest to the Subcommittee, consumers, and app developers. A full and fair examination of these issues before the Subcommittee requires Apple’s participation.” Google had agreed to send a witness.
Apple agrees to attend Senate’s hearing on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights
In response to the senator’s letter, the iPhone maker said that it was simply asking for an alternative date and did not intend to skip the hearing. The report writes:
In a letter to Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Friday, the senators said that Apple had declined to participate. In its response Sunday, the Cupertino, California-based firm said that it was “surprised” to received the letter to Cook and that it was simply seeking alternative dates.
“We have deep respect for your role and process on these matters and, as we told your staff, we are willing to participate in a hearing in the subcommittee,” Apple said. “We simply sought alternative dates in light of upcoming matters that have been scheduled for some time and that touch on similar issues.”
To answer the committee’s questions, the Cupertino tech company has listed Chief Compliance Officer, Kyle Andeer as its representative.
Andeer previously testified on several matters for Apple before the House of Representatives and other U.S. lawmakers. The Senate Subcommittee is investigating both Apple and Google over competition issues and concerns from app developers.
Currently, the App Store is under investigation in the U.S, UK, EU, Australia, Italy, Japan, and other countries over allegations of anticompetitive behavior which puts third-party apps at a disadvantage.
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