Consumer Watchdog Says Senate Panel Should Subpoena Google Executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The refusal of Google's top executives, CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt to testify at a hearing by the Senate's antitrust subcommittee demonstrates a contempt for Congress and the full Senate Judiciary Committee should subpoena the two executives, Consumer Watchdog said today.

Consumer Watchdog has been calling for Google CEO's sworn testimony before Congress for over a year and has distributed two popular online animated videos that have received more than half a million views that makes the case.

Watch the satirical video "Mr. Schmidt goes to Washington," which debuted last January in Washington on a mobile digital billboard, here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/video/mr-schmidt-goes-washington.

Watch the first video, "Don't Be Evil?"  launched on a Times Square digital billboard, here:

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/video/google-dont-be-evil.

"How is it that Eric Schmidt has the time to hobnob at a gala White House State Dinner for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but cannot find time to answer important questions from a Senate committee," asked John M. Simpson, director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group's Privacy Project. "What are Page and Schmidt afraid of?  What do they have to hide? Congress should use its subpoena power to determine whether Google's dominance of the search industry is enabling the company to monopolize the Internet."

Google has proposed sending Chief Legal Officer David Drummond to a hearing, but a letter from U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, (D-WI), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and Senator Mike Lee, (R-UT) the panel's ranking Republican said the subcommittee would "strongly prefer" Page or Schmidt at the proceeding, "which will address fundamental questions of business operations rather than merely legal issues."

"For a company whose mission is openness and transparency, Google has an obligation to be open with Congress and the American people and have the top executives answers questions with  openness and transparency," said Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog president.

Consumer Watchdog has been calling for Congressional hearing on Google since the Wi-Spy scandal erupted last year in which it was revealed the Internet giant's Street View cars collected private information from Wi-Fi networks from millions of homes in 30 nations.

Consumer Watchdog is a non-partisan public interest organization with offices in Santa Monica, CA and Washington, D.C.  For more information, visit us on the web at http://www.ConsumerWatchdog.org

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog