test one to test one to test test one to test one to test one to test one to test one to test one to test test one to test one to test one to this hearing of the committee on the judiciary subcommittee on courts and competition policy will now come to water without objection the chair is authorized declare a recess today's hearing is entitle and antitrust system for the twenty first century and in today's hearing we will explore a number of competition issues in the digital marketplace but first i made the observation that given the impact of antitrust law on the american economy it is vital that we examine how well these laws are working particularly and a lot of the innovation that today's high tech economy is role today we have an opportunity to examine what level of antitrust is appropriate in the evolving digital marketplace this evolving digital marketplace includes new products such as smartphones and the apps that run on them to news services such as mobile advertising it includes old businesses such as publishing companies which are trying to break into new platforms such as tablet computers like the op and it includes new companies like many of the small software developers that are trying to do that are writing apps for smartphones these new technologies are all for a wealth of opportunities both for individuals and for the economy as a whole however they also pose challenges but this hearing the personal challenges how to sure that these companies are competing rigorously and fairly full of barack competition yields that's for all consumers in the form of lower prices higher quality and greater supply goods are what this is today w the digital markets and services how for example do existing copyright holders sure that their rights are protected in this new digital marketplace how did company use our private information i might add with which people are willing willingly part with with which they willingly part on social read networking sites to make a profit these copyrighted  be competition concerns but they are important issues that we as policy makers need to be aware of and for the purposes of this hearing i'm curious to what extent these other values could be or should be a part of that for ladies and gentlemen thank you we start this hearing on a fundamental question critical to this sub subcommittees jurisdiction and that is what should be the role of antitrust law in emerging industries the reason we why we have antitrust laws in the first place is that competition without any restraints can harm consumers when companies compete against each other for market share they innovate and that keeps prices low and consumers win when companies eliminate their competitors consumers lose because the companies use their dominance to fatten their bottom lines now we've heard a number of people argue that there should be less antitrust enforcement in emerging technologies these markets are constantly changing the company on tap today may in fact be gone tomorrow they say that in forcing the antitrust laws to strictly in these markets will only discourage innovation and new competitors then again too little innovation could have just the opposite effect companies bad jumped out to an early lead in their field could establish the default standard for their new technologies or become the go to spot for both users and advertisers making it more difficult for later entrants to crack into the market the fact is you can't rely on industries to police themselves ten years ago congress took the leash off of wall street everyone assumed that the banks would compete more vigorously with each other and wouldn't do anything to endanger themselves or the market just the opposite happened the banks got so caught up in trying to beat the other banks that they ended up bringing down the whole system wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars in the average person's savings retirement incomes and pensions in my opinion antitrust enforcement needs a balance it's like holding the reins of a horse hold them too tightly and the horse stops or the horse may even but and if the horse if you hold those reins too loosely then the horse goes out of control this issue is at the heart of the markets that will be discussed today should antitrust in forces stand back and let these markets play themselves out or are these markets in danger of losing the spirit of competition that has m their early stages i for one don't want businesses to fear our actions today the role of government should be to foster competition and drive economic growth not stand in the way of business we want to partner with businesses not be their nanny to that and if business is businesses are concerned about anik competitive practices in their industries i want them to know that my door is always o earlier this week i heard from a constituent will siple president of worth point and internet start up at georgia tech located near my district he raised and  was a resident of my district he raised concerns with me about how his company's position has fallen in google search results over time but i don't want to turn today into a forum for google bashing i want to help mr site pulling google work together to resolve their differences with congress taking the least intrusive role possible just as importantly we need businesses to come forward and help us shape good policy when we ask i look forward to delving into these questions and many others over the course of this hearing and i thank  our visitors indicates that they to recognize this is a very important hearing today but it is part of a continuing panelists that you've invited to join us for this hearing and i look forward to their comments the only thing i would add and i'll put my statement in the record is that the online and mobile advertising space is any law needs to evolve to fit the digital world where vertical acquisitions are even more worrisome than before and it's important to consumers that various products designed to access online content work together to the greatest extent possible  somewhere along the line maybe even starting today we're going to get begin to put together a encyclopedia of where all this digital computer web page webs all of these things going to have to come together with a little bit more they will have to fit together more than they have in the past right now  and i think there's going to be a remark