House judiciary committee asks Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to turn over internal documents

The US government is expanding its investigation into tech companies. The government launched an anti-trust investigation into Facebook and Google last week and is expanding it to include Amazon and Apple.

The House judiciary committee and its subcommittee has sent out letters to four companies on Friday and has asked them to turn over their internal documents for investigation. The committee has also named several individuals which includes Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, Facebook’s Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt.

The open internet has delivered enormous benefits to Americans, including a surge of economic opportunity, massive investment, and new pathways for education online.

But there is growing evidence that a handful of corporations have come to capture an outsized share of online commerce and communications.

– Jerrold Nadler (Democrat), Chairman of the committee

The investigation represents a rare example of bipartisan cooperation as both Democrats and Republicans are working together to regulate the tech giants.

This information is key in helping determine whether anticompetitive behavior is occurring, whether our antitrust enforcement agencies should investigate specific issues and whether or not our antitrust laws need improvement to better promote competition in the digital markets.

– Doug Collins, the senior Republican on the House committee

All the companies have noted that they will cooperate fully with the congress and the investigation. The committee expects to find high profile internal documents which could lead to public hearings involving some of the biggest names in tech. The committee has given October 14 as the deadline to turn over documents. Nadler said the documents were needed to help understand “whether they are using their market power in ways that have harmed consumers and competition.”

Not only that, but the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission is also conducting a separate investigation into the major tech companies.