Monday, December 23

Tag: antitrust

Google’s App Store Ruled an Illegal Monopoly, as a Jury Sides With Epic Games
12Dec By adminNo Comments
Technology

Google’s App Store Ruled an Illegal Monopoly, as a Jury Sides With Epic Games

More bad news for Google could come in mid-2024 when US district judge Amit Mehta in Washington, DC, is expected to issue his ruling on whether Google has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over web search. Testimony in that case, which was brought by the US Department of Justice and attorneys general for nearly every US state and territory, concluded last month.A similar case two years ago had not gone too well for Epic. In Epic v. Apple, a federal judge in Oakland, California, ordered that Apple make just one change to its App Store practices. The judge found that most of the other Apple practices that Epic viewed as anticompetitive were justified, because the iPhone maker needed to recoup its investment in developing the app marketplace. Apple still has not had to comply as it awaits t...
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Chuck Schumer Doesn’t Know How Gas Prices Work
24Nov By adminNo Comments
World

Chuck Schumer Doesn’t Know How Gas Prices Work

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 22 Democratic senators recently wrote to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Lina Khan calling for an investigation into the proposed mergers between Exxon Mobil and Pioneer Natural Resources and Chevron and Hess. The letter argues that these mergers will enable “anticompetitive coordination in the industry” and raise U.S. gasoline prices. The letter, however, is based on dubious economic and legal logic and spurious historical analysis. It’s a mischaracterization of how the oil-and-gas industry operates. A fair assessment of the proposed mergers and the fossil-fuel market doesn’t reveal a firm legal and economic basis to initiate antitrust enforcement proceedings against these deals. If the senators really want a competitive energy market that suppl...
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IBM, Microsoft and Big Tech Antitrust Folly
21Oct By adminNo Comments
Health

IBM, Microsoft and Big Tech Antitrust Folly

The continuing trial of Google, along with lawsuits against Amazon and Meta, have brought antitrust back into the public eye. These suits recall the 1969 case against IBM and the 1998 case against Microsoft, the great antitrust battles of the latter half of the 20th century.Supporters of aggressive antitrust enforcement think that only antitrust suits prevented IBM from commandeering the personal-computer market and Microsoft from taking over the internet. But that’s an urban legend.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal Changes the Game
14Oct By adminNo Comments
Technology

Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Deal Changes the Game

After more than 20 months and more hurdles than a track meet, Microsoft has completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.Despite efforts from governments in the US and UK to keep tech giants from increasing in size and reach, Microsoft’s acquisition of the Call of Duty maker shows the enduring power of major technology companies—even in the face of regulatory obstacles. The last of those obstacles came in April, when the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority blocked the deal. Today, the CMA reversed the decision, clearing the way for Microsoft’s acquisition to complete.“We now have all regulatory approvals necessary to close, and we look forward to bringing joy and connection to even more players around the world,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement ...
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The F.T.C. Finally Takes On Amazon
3Oct By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

The F.T.C. Finally Takes On Amazon

Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, established her prominence as a legal scholar largely by critiquing Amazon’s sprawling business. In 2017, while she was still a student at Yale Law School, she published a paper titled “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox,” which argued that the accepted paradigm for analyzing antitrust violations was outdated. In the nineteen-seventies, American antitrust enforcement increasingly prioritized the so-called “consumer welfare” standard, which centered on the idea that consumer prices were the most important factor in judging whether a firm was engaged in anticompetitive behavior.Khan’s argument against the dominance of the consumer-welfare standard rested on an analysis of the business practices of Amazon—which she called “the titan of twenty-fir...
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The Booking.com Decision Shows the True Scope of the EU’s Big Tech Crackdown
25Sep By adminNo Comments
Technology

The Booking.com Decision Shows the True Scope of the EU’s Big Tech Crackdown

When the European Union issued new rules for the internet earlier this year, officials in Brussels envisioned a system that would stop US Big Tech from growing out of control. But the bloc’s latest antitrust decision sent a message that it’s not only American tech giants that will be subject to increasing scrutiny, but European tech companies too.Today an acquisition by travel company Booking has been blocked by EU regulators, who cited concerns that the deal could harm competition and drive up prices. Booking Holdings, whose biggest subsidiary is the Amsterdam-based online travel agent Booking.com, was prohibited from buying Swedish peer Etraveli. Booking’s chief executive hit back at the European Commission’s decision, claiming it was “wrong” about both the law and the details of the ca...
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Search Engine: United States claims Google pays more than $10 billion a year to maintain its search dominance
13Sep By adminNo Comments
Business

Search Engine: United States claims Google pays more than $10 billion a year to maintain its search dominance

WASHINGTON: Google has exploited its dominance of the internet search market to lock out competitors and smother innovation, the Department of Justice said Tuesday at the opening of the biggest US antitrust trial in a quarter century. "This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google's search engine will ever face meaningful competition," said Kenneth Dintzer, the justice department's lead litigator. Over the next 10 weeks, federal lawyers and state attorneys general will try to prove Google rigged the market in its favor by locking in its search engine as the default choice in a plethora of places and devices. US District Judge Amit Mehta likely won't issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be t...
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Google’s Search Dominance Challenged In The Biggest Antitrust Trial In Decades
12Sep By adminNo Comments
Technology

Google’s Search Dominance Challenged In The Biggest Antitrust Trial In Decades

WASHINGTON (AP) — Google will confront a threat to its dominant search engine beginning Tuesday when federal regulators launch an attempt to dismantle its internet empire in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.Over the next 10 weeks, federal lawyers and state attorneys general will try to prove Google rigged the market in its favor by locking its search engine in as the default choice in a plethora of places and devices. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta likely won’t issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.Top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., as well as those from other powerful technology companies are exp...
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