The ‘big four’ tech firm bosses will appear before a US Congress committee this week.

The 15-strong congressional anti-trust subcommittee will hear from the bosses of Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple, in a remote format.

Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook are expected to be grilled on monopoly practices in Silicon Valley.

Hearings

The hearings are expected to last 13 months, and could result in a recommendation that legislation be enacted to rein in the power of big tech.

EU competition commissioner Margarethe Vestager has initiated legal actions against Amazon and Apple and has previously probed other tech behemoths.

Tim Cook of Apple appeared before a US Senate committee in 2013 and his evidence led on to an investigation of that company’s overseas tax arrangements.

Global reach

Apple subsidiaries based in Ireland but with global reach have helped the company minimise its tax burden.

Tim Cook told the hearing that the tax code has not kept up with the digital age.

“We do have a low tax rate outside the US, but this is for products we sell outside the US,” he told the hearing.