ANTITRUST LAW – UNITED STATES

Google violated antitrust laws to dominate online search, US judge rules

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Nick Robins-Early
The Guardian – Page: Online : 6-Aug-24

Shares in technology stocks such as Apple and Google have fallen sharply in response to the US District Court’s ruling that the latter has breached anti-trust laws. Judge Amit Mehta has concluded that Google is a ‘monopolist’, and it has acted as one to maintain its market dominance with regard to search services and advertising. Department of Justice prosecutors had contended amongst other things that Google has suppressed competition by paying billions of dollars to smartphone makers such as Apple and Samsung to use it as their default search engine.

CORPORATES
GOOGLE INCORPORATED, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF JUSTICE, APPLE INCORPORATED, SAMSUNG CORPORATION

Facebook beats Biden’s antitrust suit

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Cecilia Kang
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 16 : 30-Jun-21

The market capitalisation of Facebook has risen above $US1bn for the first time after a judge dismissed an antitrust case against the social media giant. The US Federal Trade Commission and more than 40 states had launched the case against Facebook, but the federal court ruled amongst other things that the prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support claims that the company has a monopoly in the social networking sector. The lawsuit had sought to break up Facebook by forcing it to divest Instagram and WhatsApp, which it had acquired in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, INSTAGRAM LLC, WHATSAPP INCORPORATED

Antitrust woes mount for tech giants

roymorgansocial Leave a comment

Original article by Cecilia Kang, David Streitfeld, Annie Karni
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 : 5-Jun-19

US lawmakers will investigate major digital platforms for possible breaches of anti-trust laws. The House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee will undertake hearings on the issue over the next 18 months, which could lead to a formal investigation by regulators. The Federal Trade Commission would be given the task of investigating possible anti-competitive behaviour by Facebook and Amazon, while Google and Apple would be subject to scrutiny by the Department of Justice. The investigation could potentially result in changes to anti-trust laws.

CORPORATES
UNITED STATES. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, GOOGLE INCORPORATED, APPLE INCORPORATED, FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, AMAZON.COM INCORPORATED, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION, UNITED STATES. DEPT OF JUSTICE