Rich Fiscus
19 Sep 2011 14:36
Google Executive Chairman Erich Schmidt will defend his company's business practices in a US Senate antitrust subcommittee hearing later this week titled, "The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?"
Google has come under heavy fire over the last few years over allegations that it abuses its position as the leading search engine in the US and various other parts of the world. Schmidt will be one of two Google representatives at Wednesday's hearing, and the only one who is actually an employee of the search giant.
Google initially resisted requests for Schmidt and Google CEO Larry Page, who replaced Schmidt in that position, to appear at the hearing. Page, who is in court today working on a potential lawsuit settlement with Oracle, will not be attending.
After his testimony, the committee will hear from a panel mostly representing companies critical of Google. They include Nextag CEO Jeff Katz, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, and former Assistant US Attorney General Thomas Barnett, who represents Expedia.
Google counsel Susan Creighton will round out the second panel.