The U.S. Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general are expected to announce an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation as soon as Thursday, ABC reports. Details of the suit are unclear but it follows a two-year investigation into whether the company created a monopoly over the concert ticket market. Here's more.
"A bill submitted by the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would compel the dominant platforms to allow third parties to launch their own app markets and to offer more payment options, while banning the technology giants from giving preferential treatment to their own products."
Last wk, #Meta revealed (in a motion tried to dismiss: FTC anti-mon. lawsuit) that IG made $32.4B in 2021 ad rev. -shocking -consider #Google's YouTube made $28.8B -same period. App made ~30% of Meta's entire rev. in the early part of 2022. 96% of Meta's $40.1B Q4 2023 rev. came from ads +made >$100B since 2021 -likely to continue -only thing these platforms care about is rev.⬆️. In America, 83% of adults use YouTube, 68%: IG: 47%." #AI#Antitrusthttps://www.wheresyoured.at/the-great-looting-of-the-internet/
Replay Crew! We had a fun romp through tech headlines this week! https://somegadgetguy.com/b/44j
Jack Dorsey is no longer on the board of BlueSky. We're wrapping up the closing arguments in Google's anti-trust case. The Rabbit R1 is an app. Sony's marketing materials for the next XPERIA leak.
And we should probably chat about this next iPad thing-y...
US Oil producers withheld prod. to DRIVE UP OIL PRICES BY COORDINATING WITH #OPEC.
-h/t M Stoller
Exxon is set to close its $60B deal for Pioneer following an agreement with #antitrust enforcers not to add fmr Pioneer Chief Exec Sheffield to its BOD.
#LiveNation#TicketMaster#Antitrust#Monopolies: "It's been a minute since Ticketmaster was last in the news, so let's recap. Ticketmaster bought out most of its ticketing rivals, then merged with Live Nation, the country's largest concert promoter, and bought out many of the country's largest music, stage, and sports venues. They used this iron grip on the entire supply chain for performances and events to pile innumerable junk fees on every ticket sold, while drastically eroding the wages of the creative workers they nominally represented. They created a secret secondary market for tickets and worked with ticket-touts to help them run bots that bought every ticket within an instant of the opening of ticket sales, then ran an auction marketplace that made them gigantic fees on every re-sold ticket – fees the performers were not entitled to share in.
The Ticketmaster/Live Nation/venue octopus is nearly impossible to escape. Independent venues can't book Live Nation acts unless they use Ticketmaster for their tickets. Acts can't get into the large venues owned by Ticketmaster unless they sign up to have Live Nation book their tour. And when Ticketmaster buys a venue, it creams off the most successful acts, starving competing venues of blockbuster shows. They also illegally colluded with their vendors to jack up the price of concerts across the board:"
The agency accused Amazon of using the app, which can be set to automatically delete messages, to hide information related to the FTC’s ongoing #antitrust investigation into the company #security#privacy
BREAKING: U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks to block Non-Compete Rule. Chamber also seeks to block the ghosts from visiting Scrooge so Tiny Tim can die in an appropriately Malthusian way.
The Department of Justice is planning to sue Ticketmaster's owner, Live Nation, for antitrust violations, and could file suit as soon as next month, Axios reports.
23 years later, Antitrust is still a great movie. Featuring Gnome desktop and all the anti-Microsoft sentiment from the 90's. We all wanted to be Milo.
Unfortunately, some Dems have sold out to corp. interests too. It's shameful:
Based on timing -it appears that the meeting was intended to thwart the antitrust efforts, at the behest of regulators’ corp. adversaries. The presence of both Massie & Correa is intended to signal that both parties have concerns about antitrust enforcers’ approach, particularly on the HSR proposed rule, sources explained. & the effort seeks to indoctrinate staff into that mindset.
"Antitrust Action Agst Google May Transform the Internet."
Google's growth mirrors that of other tech giants like Microsoft, Meta & Apple, platform owners who've become similarly dominant in -the digital world & whose positions are coming under increased scrutiny worldwide. Platforms have used devious means to squash competitors, limiting comp. in the digital world to the detriment of just about everyone who uses the internet.
EU launches probe into Meta, Apple and Alphabet under sweeping new tech law.
CNBC reports: "The first two probes focus on Alphabet and Apple and relate to so-called 'anti-steering rules.' Other investigations are looking into whether Google favored its own services over rivals when showing search results, potential issues with Apple’s iOS, and Meta’s 'pay or consent' model."
Lina Khan is finding favour among the MAGA crowd, according to the WSJ:
The “Khanservatives,” as they call themselves, tend to be a younger and Trumpier part of the growing ranks of Republicans who question unfettered markets and see big corporations as an adversary to their constituents. The bipartisan traction suggests Khan is tapping into a generational shift in attitudes toward corporations and markets.
This week the US DoJ filed a wide-ranging antitrust case against Apple. The company’s share price tumbled on the growing threat to its highly profitable walled garden, while its cult-like fanboys assured themselves everything would be okay.
So, the US filed an antitrust suit against Apple. The people who are generally inclined to defend Apple were quick to pounce with accusations that the government was clueless and unbalanced and simply wrong in its accusations. Personally I have no opinion on the subject, but here’s a person with credible-sounding legal credentials who argues that the case is in fact strong: https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24109033/doj-apple-antitrust-lawsuit-legal-expert-praise
The lawsuit caps years of regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s wildly popular suite of devices and services, which have fueled its growth into a nearly $3 trillion public company.
I don't know much about #antitrust but I DO know that my #Iphone 11 can't load many, many apps because I can't upgrade its IOS operating system. 5 years old and if I want to load the apps I need to buy another Iphone. So, yes, that's a problem.
🗜️Broadcom slammed by cloud trade group amid claims it's "holding the sector to ransom" with VMware license changes - ITPro
「 The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) consortium called on regulatory and legislative bodies across Europe to investigate the changes Broadcom has made to the VMware operating model, which it says will “decimate” the region’s cloud infrastructure 」
U.S. Sues Apple, Accusing It of Maintaining an iPhone Monopoly (www.nytimes.com)
The lawsuit caps years of regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s wildly popular suite of devices and services, which have fueled its growth into a nearly $3 trillion public company.