The European Commission today asked Google’s competitors and others working in the Internet industry in the region for feedback on proposals made by Google to settle its years-long antitrust investigation. Swiftly, ICOMP, one of the chief lobbying organizations fighting against the search giant, has already issued a preliminary response: Google’s commitments may be “too little, too late.” → Read More
With the outcome of a two-year long EC investigation into its search practices looming, Google is likely to have to change how it presents search results in Europe to improve the visibility of rival specialised search engines, according to the FT. The newspaper says the visibility of “vertical search” results in areas such as mapping, weather and finance is one of the key concerns of the EC. → Read More
FairSearch.org group, a lobby group that counts Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle among its number, has filed a complaint about Google’s Android platform to the European Commission, describing Android as a “Trojan horse” designed to enable Google to “dominate the mobile marketplace and cement its control over consumer Internet data for online advertising as usage shifts to mobile”. → Read More
The European Union’s two-year long antitrust probe into Google’s search practices may be resolved after this summer, according to a Reuters report. The news agency quotes EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, telling a conference today: “We can reach an agreement after the summer break. We can envisage this as a possible deadline.” → Read More
A European Union antitrust investigation into Google, launched in November 2010, is still ongoing but Google has now submitted detailed proposals to the EU’s competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, according to Reuters. The EU has the power to levy a fine of up to 10 per cent of a company’s annual turnover if they are found to have breached its rules. → Read More
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission just announced that its chairman Jon Leibowitz will make an announcement about the agency’s investigation of Google at 1pm ET/10am PT. Leibowitz will be joined at the press conference by Bureau of Competition Director Richard Feinstein and Deputy Director Pete Levitas, as well as Bureau of Economics Director Howard Shelansk. → Read More
Good news for Amazon, and for consumers on the lookout for bargain prices for e-books in Europe. Apple, along with the publishers Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Hachette and Holtzbrinck (Macmillan), have reached a settlement over e-book pricing in Europe. That deal had become the subject of an antitrust probe initiated in December 2011: the European Commission believed it gave Apple and… → Read More
Looks like the European Commission is following through on what it’s been reportedly planning to do for weeks: it has filed a formal complaint against Microsoft for antitrust violations related to Internet Explorer and giving consumers a clear way to choose another browser when using Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The violation cost cost Microsoft billions in fines — the maximum penalty… → Read More
Pull out the ibuprofen, Redmond: it looks like the antitrust headache that bothered Microsoft for years in Europe may be coming back: the European Commission is preparing to bring charges against the company worth billions of euros because Microsoft has failed to implement an effective way of offering users alternatives to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser on Windows-powered devices, according… → Read More
The best line of defense is attack — and if you can couch your attack in authoritative legal language and attach it to lofty legal principles, so much the better. That’s the underlying message behind a Google-commissioned report (released today) which seeks to undermine the legitimacy of ongoing antitrust probes into Mountain View’s search dominance and practices. → Read More
European Union regulators are preparing to charge Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2009 ruling ordering the company to offer users of its desktop operating system a choice of web browsers, Reuters is reporting.
The EU opened an investigation into the case back in July, to determine whether Microsoft had kept the commitments it made under the antitrust ruling which stipulated users should… → Read More
With its recent purchase of Zagat and today’s announcement that it is acquiring travel guide company Frommer’s, there can be little doubt that Google is getting deeper into the content business. This move makes a lot of sense for Google, which is trying to add more content to its local reviews business and Knowledge Graph, but it could also put the company under additional scrutiny from antitrust… → Read More
Google currently faces a number of antitrust investigations in the U.S. and Europe. To make matters worse, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) just announced that it is also launching an inquiry into Google’s business practices. The announcement follows a complaint by Indian consumer advocacy group Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) International. That, sadly, is also the extend of the… → Read More
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Apple and a number of other large U.S. publishers of conspiring to fix eBook prices and filed an antitrust lawsuit. While most of the publishers quickly settled the lawsuit, Apple decided to fight. Earlier this week, as Ars Technica reports today, Apple responded (PDF) to the government’s accusations. Apple doesn’t mince words in its response. → Read More
In late 2010, the European Commission launched an investigation into allegations that Google was abusing its dominant position in the search engine market. Today, Joaquín Almunia, the vice president of the European Commission responsible for competition policy, sent a letter to Google chairman Eric Schmidt with an update about its finding. The Commission, writes Almunia, identified four specific… → Read More
The European antitrust investigation of Google, originally filed November 2010, looks like it might be entering the next stage of its development.
The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), a consumer-rights group that represents 42 regional groups in 31 countries, says that it expects the Competition Commission to release its findings “within days” and possibly by the end of this week.
For… → Read More
As I watched the Google antitrust hearings last Wednesday, with its gotcha moments and Senators pontificating about the dangers Google poses to society, it struck me that what I was watching was theater. And not just any theater, but monopoly theater. I am borrowing from the concept of security theater: “a term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved… → Read More
The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding Antitrust hearings on Google today and Google chairman Eric Schmidt is in the hot seat taking questions under oath. The hearing is under way right now (you can watch it live here). The main question the Senate hearing is trying to answer, says committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), is whether “Google is in a position to determine who… → Read More
Those reveling in the thumb-in-the-eye the DOJ gave to AT&T over the T-Mobile merger should pause a moment to consider the politics of spectrum allocation in the US.
Anyone who has an iPhone on AT&T knows they need spectrum. Spectrum is a finite resource of airwaves allocated by the federal government (FCC) to businesses based on a bidding process that necessitates demonstrated consumer… → Read More
The knives are out in Washington, D.C. for Google. Google has long been under the threat of an antitrust investigation in the U.S., but this time it looks like it is about to happen. According to the Wall Street Journal, the FTC is preparing a major antitrust investigation into Google’s “core search advertising business.” No wonder Larry Page and Eric Schmidt don’t want to appear before a… → Read More
AT&T’s $39 billion bid for T-Mobile this weekend wasn’t just a surprise to the general public. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse was also “shocked” to find out about it. “That one was not on the radar screen,” he tells CNBC’s Jim Cramer in an interview today (transcript). He didn’t think it would be possible because of antitrust issues, and he is definitely playing up those issues now.
Hesse doesn’t… → Read More
Google is constantly under antitrust scrutiny these days, whether it’s for large acquisitions into new markets such as its proposed ITA deal or for its general dominance in search. The company has faced antitrust investigations in Europe. But now Google faces possible antitrust hearings in the U.S. Senate .
Senator Herb Kohl (Democrat from Wisconsin), who is the Chairman of the Senate… → Read More
The FIEG, an association of Italian editors, recently tried to sue Google’s News service. They claim: “Google is preventing editors from choosing freely which articles should be posted on the website”. The editors are also claiming that websites which don’t want to be published on Google News would also be automatically excluded from Google’s standard search results. → Read More
AMD launched the Break Free Page: a collection of articles and quotes ramming about Intel’s bad behavior. I understand that Intel was a bad boy and revenge is sweet but making a website about it seems a little cheap. Maybe the time and effort put in slapping Intel should go to making processors. → Read More
The 9-year-long antitrust battle between Intel and the European Union (the European Commission, to be exact) ended today and there is a clear loser: Intel. The company faces a $1.45 billion fine for abusing its No. 1 position in the market for computer chips. This is the highest fine the European Commission has ever imposed on a company. → Read More
Last week I reported that Psystar retained Carr & Ferrell, the law firm that stood up to Apple and won. This week Colby Springer, one of the lawyers working on the case, hinted at their legal strategies during an interview on Thursday. Springer told reporters: “They came to us, I think, because this is a much bigger issue than just copyright,” → Read More
The long-running dispute between AMD and Intel, in which the former alleges anti-trust violations by the latter, has a new wrinkle. A key point in the battle is coming up, and AMD has released to the public its laundry list of accusations. Or, at least, something like that. It seems they (or more likely Intel) feel that the public is not ready to hear what AMD has to say, so → Read More
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