antitrust

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Microsoft muscles aside other browsers and cements the dominance of Internet Explorer. The browser market, deprived of competition, stagnates.

That, of course, is what happened during the first browser war of the 1990s and beyond, on personal computers. Today, Mozilla's top lawyer warned that Microsoft's behavior threatens a repeat of history, because it's telling Mozilla that it's barring Firefox from forthcoming Windows 8 machines that use ARM processors.

"They're trying to make a new version of their operating system which denies their users choice, competition, … Read more

Do Google and other search engines have a constitutional right to control their own search results?

The answer is yes, at least in the opinion of UCLA law professor and First Amendment scholar Eugene Volokh.

In a report commissioned by the search giant (PDF), Volokh asserts that search results are a type of "opinion" based on what information the search engines believe would be most relevant to their users, according to news site PaidContent. Therefore, the results are protected by the First Amendment.

"Google, Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo Search and other search engine companies are rightly seen … Read more

Google has another country to worry about in its fight against antitrust complaints.

India's Competition Commission announced today that it has launched an antitrust investigation into the search giant's practices on its advertising platform, AdWords. There is a chance, the agency said, that it could expand its investigation into other areas.

Google has been hit from all sides as regulators in the U.S. and European Union investigate whether the search company has violated antitrust regulations.

Last week, European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said his office is "very serious" about its investigation into Google's … Read more

Although it has been investigating Google for a considerable amount of time, the European Union's competition office is not ready to decide on the case just yet.

"We are not yet there. This is a complex case," European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said of his office's Google investigation in an interview with Reuters. "We are not in a hurry. We are very serious."

The European Commission launched an investigation into Google's search practices back in November 2010. The investigation followed complaints from search providers, U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French … Read more

The Federal Trade Commission has hired a former Justice Department prosecutor to play a crucial role in determining whether it should charge Google with antitrust violations.

The FTC confirmed to The Wall Street Journal last night that it had hired Beth Wilkinson, an attorney at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In her new role, Wilkinson, who is also a former Department of Justice prosecutor, will help lead the team that could decide whether the FTC believes that Google violated antitrust regulations and, if so, prosecute the company as well.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, … Read more

Apple, Google, and Intel, along with four other major technology companies, were court-ordered to face an antitrust lawsuit over claims they colluded not to "poach" each others' employees.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who had previously presided over Apple vs. Samsung patent cases, rejected the companies' attempt to squash the case brought, reports Reuters.

Adobe, Intuit, Pixar, and Lucasfilm are also subject to the antitrust suit.

A class action suit was brought by five software engineers, who accused the technology giants of conspiring to lower employee pay by removing competition for skilled labor.

An investigation by the … Read more

Apple remains intent on fighting the U.S. Justice Department's e-book antitrust lawsuit in court.

In a preliminary hearing before U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan, an attorney for Apple reportedly reiterated the company's claim that it did nothing wrong.

"Our basic view is that we would like the case to be decided on the merits," Apple lawyer Daniel Floyd said, according to Reuters. "We believe that this is not an appropriate case against us and we would like to validate that."

The Justice Department's lawsuit, filed at the same time … Read more

Most companies finding themselves staring at the business end of a government cannon might consider it time to talk compromise. Apple is not most companies.

One day after the Department of Justice sued Apple and several book publishers for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices, Apple publicly dismissed the government's claims as empty and false. Instead, Apple stayed with the script and described the 2010 launch of the iBookstore as a force for "innovation and competition," one that also helped break what it called "Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry."

"Since then … Read more

In case you missed it, the U.S. government recently filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of this country's largest publishers, alleging they conspired to limit competition for the pricing of e-books. Three of the five -- HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster -- opted to settle the case, while Penguin, Macmillan, and Apple didn't.

So where does that leave us?

Well, if you've spent any time reading through the terms of the settlement, you quickly realize not everything's all that black and white and is in fact quite muddled. For starters, a judge … Read more