antitrust - Page 7

Massive Flow of Google Cash Makes Rivals Hesitant to Support Antitrust Action

While rivals have warned of Google’s privacy problems and market dominance through monopoly power, many are reportedly hesitant to pursue antitrust measures due to their reliance on the tech giant’s money. In the case of Mozilla, which makes the Firefox browser to rival Google’s Chrome, the vast majority of its revenue comes from an agreement to make Google the browser’s default search option.

Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome, speaks at Google's annual developer confer

NYT: Google and Apple Formed Agreement to Control the Internet

A recent report from the New York Times states that the Justice Department is targeting a secretive partnership between Apple and Google worth billions of dollars as part of its landmark antitrust case. The deal, which cemented Google’s control of internet search, is described as “one of the most lucrative business deals in history” by the Times.

Google bucks soaring smartphone prices with new Pixel

DOJ Files Long-Awaited Antitrust Suit Against Google

The Justice Department has filed its long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the Big Tech Masters of the Universe engaged in anticompetitive practices to preserve its monopoly power and crush competitors to its search and advertising businesses. The Wall Street Journal first broke the story on Tuesday morning that the lawsuit would finally be filed.

Google's Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai gives a keynote address during the opening da

WSJ: Google Was a ‘Godsend’ to Travel Companies, Now a Threat

A recent report from the Wall Street Journal outlines how travel sites that previously benefited from Google’s search engine rankings are now finding themselves being limited by the company’s algorithms as Google creates its own products in direct competition with them. Travel is yet another web niche that is feeling the might of Google’s monopoly power.

Leon Neal/Getty Images

ProtonMail CEO: Apple Runs Its App Store Like ‘Mafia Extortion’

Tech giant Apple reportedly forced the privacy-focused email app ProtonMail to add in-app purchases to its iPhone app despite the service being free for years. Apple’s treatment of the popular privacy-centric email service is another example of Tim Cook’s company flexing its monopoly power. ProtonMail CEO Andy Yen likened Apple’s app store policies to “mafia extortion.”

Tim Cook CEO of Apple laughing

Congressional Democrats Admit Big Tech Companies Abuse Monopoly Power

A recent report from top Democratic Congressional lawmakers has determined that tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google engage in anti-competitive behavior. According to the report, “To put it simply, companies that once were scrappy, underdog startups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.”

This combination of 2019-2020 photos shows Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Goog

Masters of the Universe Squabble: Apple Rejects Facebook’s ‘Irrelevant’ Info on App Store Fees

Facebook recently complained to Reuters that tech giant Apple rejected its attempt to explain to users that Tim Cook’s company would take a 30 percent cut of sales from its new online events feature, forcing Facebook to remove the message in order to implement the feature in its iOS app. Apple cited a policy against showing “irrelevant” information in updates to explain the decision. 

Tim Cook CEO of Apple laughing

Yelp CEO: When Google Competes on a Level Playing Field, It Loses

The CEO of the popular restaurant review app Yelp, Jeremy Stoppelman, appeared on a podcast recently to discuss the growing monopoly power of the Big Tech Masters of the Universe.  According to Stoppelman, Google doesn’t like to compete on a level playing field because, “when they tried to, they were losing.”

Google-CEO-Sundar-Pichai Alex Wong:Gettyjpg

MarketWatch: Video Games Could Be Apple and Google’s Antitrust ‘Achilles Heel’

In a recent article, MarketWatch questions whether video games could actually be Google and Apple’s weakness in antitrust cases. One venture capitalist commented, “These closed gardens feel like extortion. You need to pay to survive. It harkens to Microsoft and the Department of Justice investigation, and AT&T before that. With Apple and Google, it comes down to what is the ‘right’ take for the platforms? Thirty percent? 10%?”

The Associated Press

‘Fortnite’ Developer Epic Games Scores Partial Victory Against Apple

Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple is now well underway with the game developer scoring a partial win in the first ruling on the case. The court granted the developer a temporary restraining order against Apple following the tech giant’s threat to remove Epic’s Unreal Engine from multiple Apple platforms — an act of retaliation against the Fortnite company that would have impacted thousands of developers working on their own games and entertainment projects.

The Associated Press