How to Watch Today’s Senate Hearing on App Store Fairness

Apple and Google will take the hot seat at a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing examining the companies’ app stores today (April 21), where Spotify legal official Horacio Gutierrez will testify as a witness.

The hearing will address the Silicon Valley tech giants’ power over the digital app market through their app stores. Developers must pay Apple and Google between 15 and 30 percent of their revenue to appear on the companies’ app stores, without a clear alternative to reach consumers.

Gutierrez is head of global affairs and chief legal officer at Spotify, which filed an antitrust complaint in the EU in March 2019 alleging that Apple abused its control over which apps appear in its app store to limit competition with Apple Music.

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He joins a witness list of companies which rely on app stores, including Tile general counsel Kristen Daru and Match Group chief legal officer and secretary Jared Sine. Spotify, Match Group and Tile are all members of The Coalition for App Fairness, a nonprofit launched last year to advocate for fair competition in the app ecosystem. Consumer Federation of America director of research Mark Cooper will also testify.

Testifying for Big Tech are Apple chief compliance officer Kyle Andeer and Google senior director on the government affairs & public policy Wilson White.

Watch the hearing live at 2:30 p.m. EST on C-SPAN or on the Senate Judiciary website here.