monopoly - Page 7

The creator of the megapopular Fortnite video game, Epic Games, has reportedly announced a new tournament taking place on August 23 where players will compete win anti-Apple prizes as the game developer continues its legal battle with tech giant Apple.

In a recent article, the New York Times outlines how a shrinking economy and the world in turmoil due to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has actually helped Silicon Valley tech giants to further amass their wealth and influence.

Tech giant Apple has reportedly threatened to remove Epic Games’ access to all the development tools necessary to create software for Apple’s platforms including the Unreal Engine Epic offers to third-party developers, a move the game developer calls an “existential threat.” The threat of retaliation ratchets up the ongoing dispute between the companies sparked by the removal of Fortnite from the Apple app store.

Epic Games, the company behind the massively popular game Fortnite, filed a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday after the Silicon Valley giant removed the game from its App Store, preventing players from accessing the games on iPhone and iPad devices. Epic released an ad after the banning which claims: “Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming ‘1984’”

A recent report from NBC outlines what a huge number of emails from tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google could mean for possible antitrust cases against the companies.

As tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are investigated by Congress over antitrust allegations, troves of internal company emails reveal how these companies rose to the top and provide compelling evidence that they violated antitrust laws. Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu believes that the Masters of the Universe have built a business model on buying the competition, and destroying those that will not sell.

Tech giant Google has been accused of squeezing out rival search engines due to fears that it would “lose relevance” based on recently released internal emails.

Last week, Breitbart News revealed that Google Search is interfering in the election, purging links to conservative websites from its search results, including a complete purge of Breitbart News links from searches related to Joe Biden. The blacklisting of conservatives sources becomes even more serious in light of Google’s status as the default search engine on every smartphone in America — a monopoly on searches that Google pays Apple $1.5 billion to maintain.

Blix, the developers of the “BlueMail” app, alleges that Google removed their email app from its mobile Play Store just days after the developer revealed that they were cooperating with a House antitrust investigation of the tech giant.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was questioned today by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) about the company’s monopoly on its App Store during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel alongside the CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Amazon. Cook claims Apple “treats every developer the same,” and that “the rules apply to everyone.”

A recent report from the Markup alleges that tech giant Google ranks its own products and services above others in Google Search. The report is based on an analysis of 15,000 popular Google searches and found Google devoted 41 percent of the all-important first page of search results to its own sites and “direct answers” hosted by the Internet giant itself.

NYU professor, Silicon Valley expert, and author Scott Galloway recently outlined seven antitrust-related questions that Apple CEO Tim Cook could be asked when he appears before Congress this week.

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal alleges that e-commerce giant Amazon met with small startups seeking investments to gain insight into their products before later launching its own competing products.

A recent report from the New York Times alleges that when promoting video clips on its platform, Google gives a secret advantage to its own video streaming service, YouTube.

Throughout the years, search giant Google has made many changes to its Search product. Now, many websites are being forced to pay more to have their content ranked higher in search results, fighting against Google’s own content. As one expert explains, “We’ve passed a milestone in Google’s evolution from search engine to walled-garden. They used to be the good guys.”

Germany’s top court ruled against social media giant Facebook in an antitrust case related to the company’s collection of user data. The court affirmed the findings of Germany’s antitrust watchdog, which ruled that Facebook abused its market dominance to harvest data from users across multiple platforms.

Officials from the DOJ and some state attorneys general are reportedly set to meet on Friday to discuss an antitrust probe of  Google.

Just days after Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson stated that a handful of companies like Google and Facebook have “colonized the web, and they’re choking it,” Hansson found his new email app banned from Apple’s app store.

Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, who created the popular “Ruby on Rails” web application framework, discussed the state of the modern internet in a recent interview, stating that a handful of companies like Google and Facebook have “colonized the web, and they’re choking it.” According to Hansson, “We need stringent and overdue legislation, we need to break up monopolies, and we need to give consumers better alternatives.”

A recent investigation from ProPublica reveals that while brands have previously been able to bid for the top slot in Amazon’s search listings, the e-commerce giant has begun using the position for its own private-label items, raising antitrust concerns.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, officials at the Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general are focused on Google’s ad business and how it has used its search monopoly. According to the WSJ, the DOJ is planning to bring a case as early as this summer, while state AGs are likely to file a case in the fall.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will propose a bill to halt American businesses from mergers and acquisitions.

Amazon reportedly told members of its affiliates program on Tuesday that it will be cutting commission rates beginning on April 21. The “Amazon Associates” affiliate marketing program pays a percentage of sales to publishers that direct consumers to Amazon via links on their website and social media.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) called on the United States to rebuild its domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in order to end China’s monopoly on the drugs Americans rely on.

The coronavirus outbreak exposes the need to protect domestic medicine and medical supplies manufacturing as a “strategic national asset,” explains “China Rx” author Rosemary Gibson.

U.S. tech giant Apple has reportedly been fined €1.1 billion euros ($1.37 billion) by France’s competition watchdog for anticompetitive practices.

A recent report outlines how Google has successfully slowed Amazon’s efforts to move into the smart TV market. Google reportedly wielded its monopoly power over the Android operating system that controls most smart TVs to stop Amazon’s competition.

President Donald Trump’s economic advisers are skeptical about rewriting antitrust rules to tackle the growing power of tech giants, according to the latest annual Economic Report of the President. The Council of Economic Advisers argue that the monopolistic power wielded by the Masters of the Universe are signs of “competitive success.”

Rivals of tech giant Google have alleged that the app choice screen on its Android devices still heavily favors Google’s own apps.

Italy’s competition watchdog has reportedly launched proceedings against social media giant Facebook for non-compliance with previous requests relating to improper commercial practices in the site’s treatment of user data.

A group of companies behind now-defunct apps is suing Facebook, alleging that the company took part in an “anticompetitive scheme” that destroyed their business prospects.

The multistate antitrust probe of Google will reportedly not just include the company’s advertising business but will expand into the firm’s search and Android mobile OS products.

European antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager reportedly stated during a recent conference that Google’s efforts to drive more traffic to European comparison shopping rivals have failed.

The online review site Yelp is ramping up its long-standing feud with Google, saying in a new report that the search engine’s monopoly is not only hurting Yelp but is also hurting innovation and consumer choice in the digital marketplace.

New court documents reveal that tech giant Facebook reportedly began cutting off access to user data for app developers in 2012 to squash potential rivals. The company internally called this the “Switcheroo Plan.”

Apple CEO Tim Cook stated in a recent interview that “no reasonable person would ever call Apple a monopolist.”