ANTITRUST

ANTITRUST
DOJ Moving Forward On ‘Major Priority’ Big Tech Antitrust Probe
August 13, 2020

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is moving forward with its investigation into Big Tech firms based on antitrust complaints, according to Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, as reported by Reuters. “We are going full-tilt,” Rosen said, according to Reuters. “It’s a major priority. We have...

ANTITRUST
UK Authority Says Facebook’s Giphy Must Stay Independent
August 10, 2020

Facebook’s acquisition of Giphy has hit another snag, with the United Kingdom’s competition watchdog ordering the tech giant to appoint a “formal hold separate manager” to ensure the independence of the GIF-maker as an antitrust review pushes forward. The Competition and Market Authority (CMA), in...

ANTITRUST
NY Bill Would Loosen Restrictions On Suing Big Tech
August 06, 2020

New York State Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris has introduced new legislation to help tamp corporate power and the stifling of competition, according to a press release. The bill, according to the release, would allow the state to take legal action against large corporations that...

ANTITRUST
EU Launches Antitrust Review Of Google’s Fitbit Deal
August 04, 2020

Google’s push into the fitness tracker and smart watch market has hit a major snag. The European Commission on Tuesday (Aug. 4) announced plans to launch a full-scale antitrust review of Google’s planned $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit. While Google had pledged not to use...

ANTITRUST
DOJ To Investigate Intuit’s $7B Takeover Of Credit Karma 
August 04, 2020

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched a probe into Intuit’s $7.1 billion purchase of Credit Karma. ProPublica reported the DOJ has raised questions about potential antitrust issues if Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, takes over its former rival that offered free tax preparation...

ANTITRUST
Big Tech And The Optical Illusion Of Monopoly
August 03, 2020

The most interesting thing about Big Tech’s Fab Four tour of Capitol Hill last Wednesday (July 29) wasn’t the perfunctory lawmaker grandstanding, or even the number of times lawmakers used “dominant” and “crushing the competition” to describe their views on the companies’ behavior. It was...

ANTITRUST
Big Tech CEOs Didn’t Win Over Congress At Hearing
July 30, 2020

The big day finally came — the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google‘s parent, Alphabet, sat in front of lawmakers (at least virtually) and spent four hours getting grilled by a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. Lawmakers demanded answers to...

ANTITRUST
Telegram Adds To Apple’s EU Antitrust Allegations
July 30, 2020

Apple Inc. is facing another antitrust complaint.  Telegram, the cloud-based messaging app with more than 400 million users, said that in 2016, Apple restricted the messaging app from launching a gaming platform on the grounds that it violated App Store rules, the Financial Times reported. Pavel...

ANTITRUST
Tech Giants’ Hill Testimony Reveals CEO Views On Competition — And Innovation
July 29, 2020

At Capitol Hill hearings, there are scripts. And then there are the unscripted moments. The Wednesday (July 29) hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee promises a lot of the latter for the four CEOs of Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon — respectively, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar...