A congressional hearing has been called to closely examine Google’s planned DoubleClick acquisition. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection have raised concerns over the potential merger, and its implications for consumer-privacy and anticompetitive issues.
John D. Dingell (D-MI), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the planned deal a “virtual privacy time bomb.”
The congressional hearing will probably start in the fall when Congress returns from its recess.
Google has been in the spotlight with regard to negative privacy reports, including one out of the European Union.
In addition to speculation, Precursor president Scott Cleland hosted a virtual press conference to discuss the implications of the merge.
Cleland warned the Federal Trade Commission and Congress that approving a merger between Google and DoubleClick would enable Google to dominate the online advertising market and the business model of the Internet.
“The more one learns the more concerned one becomes about this merger,” Cleland said in a written statement. “The facts and evidence will prove that a Google-DoubleClick merger would effectively combine the No. 1 and No. 2 Internet user audiences, content provider networks and advertising client bases, enabling Google to effectively corner the online advertising market for consumer click data, ad-performance tools, ad-brokering and ad-exchanges.”
