#Capitalism#Globalization#Monopolies#Antitrust#Unions: "Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.
That's a lesson Mercedes is learning.
(...)
This is that unexpected benefit to globalism: the fact that Mercedes has extrusions into both the American and German political spheres means that both American and German workers can collaborate to bring it to heel.
The same is true for antitrust regulators. The multinational corporations that are in regulators' crosshairs in the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea and beyond use the same playbook in every country. That's doubly true of Big Tech companies, who literally run the same code – embodying the same illegal practices – on servers in every country."
First was a nice slate of talks at the Maastricht University Faculty of Law by Martijn Snoep (an enforcer's perspective on the green and digital transition), @kasnder (Ticketmaster, online bots, and the price of concert tickets), and Maria José Schmidt-Kessen (human rights and corporate sustainability due diligence for improving antitrust law) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vczQsxVQajA (2/6) #law#antitrust
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.
#EU#Europe#Antitrust#Monopolies: "We are launching a new economic agenda for tackling monopoly power called "Rebalancing Europe", together with allies across Europe.
In June, millions of Europeans will be called upon to vote in elections that will determine the course and character of European democracy for years to come.
This manifesto sets out a roadmap for reimagining the mission, structure, and powers of the European Commission and European Parliament to restore freedom, opportunity, and prosperity to all its citizens by reining in and dispersing concentrated economic power.
For too long, the EU hesitated as a handful of powerful corporations gained strangleholds over the very heart of our economic life: our core communications and commercial technologies, essential goods, and critical supply chains. Hundreds of major corporate mergers went unchallenged, leading to serious and growing corporate concentration. This concentration has severely weakened Europe's power to provide for its citizens and defend their rights and freedoms." https://www.iccl.ie/news/new-manifesto-for-europe/
#DOJ Can Reopen NAR Antitrust Probe: Appeals Court >>>
The National Association of #Realtors is officially back in the federal spotlight.
The Department of Justice can reopen its #antitrust#investigation into the trade group’s policies, according to a ruling in a Washington D.C. federal #appeals#court on Friday.
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#EC#Neoliberalism#Antitrust#Competition#BigTech: "In 2019, a year after the GDPR came into force, Johnny Ryan appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee and told them that “things I think are looking very bleak for our colleagues at Google and at Facebook … it is highly likely that they will be forced to change how they do business.” At the time, he was working for Brave, a privacy-focused web browser founded by the author of the Javascript programming language.
I asked Ryan what happened. “I was a naïve young man,” he chuckled. In fairness, at the time he added the caveat that the Europeans had yet to enforce their own policy. The Commission shipped out enforcement to member states’ data protection authorities, without much pressure to apply the law as written. Tech platforms quickly realized that if they headquartered in one EU country, they could funnel all GDPR regulatory enforcement there. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Meta set up shop in Ireland, and Amazon in Luxembourg; both are notorious tax havens with incentives to be friendly to Big Tech. Ryan made a public records request asking how many Irish investigators were working on GDPR, and was told the agency didn’t even have records to find out who was investigating.
“If you have free movement within the EU but strong national state authorities in their territories, it’s obvious that corporates will play them against each other,” said Repasi, and that’s what happened. A parallel problem is that the GDPR didn’t focus enforcement toward the biggest purveyors of data, meaning that the smallest website operators—“local sports clubs and dentists,” Ryan said—felt the biggest relative impact.
“When a member state doesn’t enforce European law,” Ryan added, “the European Commission is the guardian of the treaties of the EU and they should take that state to court … [but] 10 to 15 years ago the Commission stopped taking cases against member states. It’s love instead of power.”" https://prospect.org/world/2024-04-03-eurocrats-on-the-brink/
#SocialMedia#Facebook#Snapchat#Privacy#Encryption#Cybersecurity#Monopolies#Antitrust#BigTech: "In 2016, Facebook launched a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, according to newly unsealed court documents. Facebook called this “Project Ghostbusters,” in a clear reference to Snapchat’s ghost-like logo.
On Tuesday, a federal court in California released new documents discovered as part of the class action lawsuit between consumers and Meta, Facebook’s parent company.
The newly released documents reveal how Meta tried to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors, including Snapchat and later Amazon and YouTube, by analyzing the network traffic of how its users were interacting with Meta’s competitors. Given these apps’ use of encryption, Facebook needed to develop special technology to get around it." https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/26/facebook-secret-project-snooped-snapchat-user-traffic/
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
WIRED: “The DOJ claims that unspecified surveys have reached similar conclusions, finding that the devices linked to their iPhones deter them from switching to Android.”
🗜️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 」
@chriswelch from @theverge looks at five big takeaways from the DOJ's antitrust case against Apple, which references the anticompetitiveness of the company's exclusive software features and device ecosystem.