Apple CEO Tim Cook releases opening statement ahead of historic congressional antitrust hearing: 'We make no concession on the facts'

Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook released his opening statement ahead of the historic tech antitrust hearing before House Judiciary's Antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday.
Cook is set to appear alongside Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and CEO Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, as part of an investigation into the companies' power and influence on the tech industry.
Cook's opening statement defended Apple, asserting that the company "does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business."
The App Store has been subjected to scrutiny amid "growing concern among lawmakers that the company's App Store — and broader app ecosystem — is hurting developers," according to Business Insider's Hugh Langley and Aaron Holmes.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook released his opening statement on Tuesday, ahead of the historic tech antitrust hearing before Congress, which will also feature the CEOs from Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

The CEOs of the four tech giants will appear before House Judiciary's Antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday as part of an investigation into its power and influence on the tech industry.

Cook's opening statement defended Apple, asserting that the company "does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business."

"That is not just true for iPhone; it is true for any product category," Cook wrote in the opening statement.

The App Store has been subjected to scrutiny amid "growing concern among lawmakers that the company's App Store — and broader app ecosystem — is hurting developers," according to Business Insider's Hugh Langley and Aaron Holmes.

"The App Store is Apple's second-biggest revenue maker after the iPhone, but Apple's own apps aren't subject to the same rules as third parties, and it's long been argued that this gives Apple another unfair advantage over competition," according to the report.

However, Cook claimed that for a "vast majority of apps" on the App Store, developers keep all of the profits per sale, and "the only apps that are subject to a commission are those where the developer acquires a customer on an Apple device and where the features or services would be experienced and consumed on an Apple device."

"Apple's commissions are comparable to or lower than commissions charged by the majority of our competitors," the Apple CEO continued. "And they are vastly lower than the 50 to 70% that software developers paid to distribute their work before we launched the App Store."

He went on to assert the company's commission rate was "never raised" nor did the company add a "single fee." Instead, Cook said Apple "reduced them for subscriptions and exempted additional categories of apps."

"The App Store evolves with the times, and every change we have made has been in the direction of providing a better experience for our users and a compelling business opportunity for developers," he wrote, mentioning "more than 1.9 million American jobs in all 50 states are attributable to the App Store ecosystem."

"I am here today because scrutiny is responsible and appropriate," Cook said in his planned opening statement. "We approach this process with respect and humility. But we make no concession on the facts."