Reuters: UK’s competition regulator looking at formal investigation into Google. “Britain’s competition regulator the CMA said on Monday it had received a complaint about Google related to its market study on online platforms and digital advertising earlier this year.”
antitrust
New York Times: Apple Halves Its App Store Fee for the Smaller Companies
New York Times: Apple Halves Its App Store Fee for the Smaller Companies. “Apple, facing growing antitrust scrutiny over what it charges other companies for access to its App Store, said on Wednesday that it would cut in half the fee it took from the smallest app developers.”
Deutsche Welle: Companies plead with EU regulators for action on Google
Deutsche Welle: Companies plead with EU regulators for action on Google. “On November 12, 165 companies and industry bodies in Europe joined Foundem in penning a letter to EU antitrust regulators pleading for harder action against Google. They say the company is driving them out of business with unfair practices on the Google search results page, a function that is so widely used it is essentially the gateway to the internet.”
Texas A&M Today: How The Google Lawsuit Will Affect The Future Of Technology
Texas A&M Today: How The Google Lawsuit Will Affect The Future Of Technology. “The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a lawsuit against Google on Oct. 20 due to alleged violations of antitrust laws. Experts say the lawsuit could change how we understand Big Tech companies and use technology. ‘A lot of people are concerned about the concentration of power that Google has,’ said Texas A&M University Professor Kirby Goidel of the Department of Communication. ‘Although one can say that Google has not been awful in how they use their power, that doesn’t mean they can’t be.'”
Reuters: Google at odds with U.S. over protective order for firms tied to lawsuit
Reuters: Google at odds with U.S. over protective order for firms tied to lawsuit. “Alphabet Inc’s Google and the U.S. Justice Department have failed to reach agreement over a protective order for third parties like Microsoft that provided data to the government for its lawsuit against the search and advertising giant.”
City A.M.: Google boss apologises to EU chief over plans to dodge antitrust laws
City A.M.: Google boss apologises to EU chief over plans to dodge antitrust laws. “Google chief executive Sundar Pichai has apologised to EU industry chief Thierry Breton after leaked documents revealed plans to attack the commissioner over new antitrust laws. In a video conference last night, Pichai insisted he had not seen or signed off on the document and apologised for the way it had come out.”
ABC News: Turkey fines Google for abusing market dominance
ABC News: Turkey fines Google for abusing market dominance. “Turkish regulators have fined Google 196.7 million Turkish liras ($25.5 million) for allegedly abusing its market dominance in online searches. In a statement released Friday, the Competition Authority said Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc had made it difficult for companies to show up in searches if they did not generate advertisement revenue for Google.”
BNN Bloomberg: Yelp CEO is encouraged by U.S. antitrust case against Google
BNN Bloomberg: Yelp CEO is encouraged by U.S. antitrust case against Google. “Yelp Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Stoppelman has long been convinced that Google has a monopoly in the internet search market and said a recent U.S. antitrust case against the company validates his position.”
Exclusive: Group of 165 Google critics calls for swift EU antitrust action – letter (Reuters)
Reuters: Exclusive: Group of 165 Google critics calls for swift EU antitrust action – letter. “A group of 165 companies and industry bodies have called on EU antitrust enforcers to take a tougher line against Google, saying the U.S. tech giant unfairly favours its own services on its web searches.”
Washington Post: Europe fined Google nearly $10 billion for antitrust violations, but little has changed
Washington Post: Europe fined Google nearly $10 billion for antitrust violations, but little has changed. “The European Union spent a decade pursuing Google on antitrust charges, ultimately fining the company nearly $10 billion for using illegal tactics to abuse its dominant position on the market. But two years after the bloc’s biggest rulings, very little competition has emerged, in part because the E.U. largely left it to Google to fix the problems, antitrust lawyers and Google competitors say.”
TechCrunch: India opens antitrust case against Google over its payments app
TechCrunch: India opens antitrust case against Google over its payments app. “India’s antitrust watchdog has opened an investigation into Google for allegedly abusing the dominant position of its app store to promote its payments service in the world’s second largest internet market.”
KVOR: Google Will Not File Motion to Dismiss US Lawsuit
KVOR: Google Will Not File Motion to Dismiss US Lawsuit. “Alphabet’s Google said on Friday it would not file a motion to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit filed last month but would fight it in federal court. The U.S. Justice Department sued the $1 trillion search and advertising giant in October, accusing it of illegally using its market muscle to hobble rivals in the biggest challenge to the power and influence of Big Tech in decades.”
Reuters: Online giants will have to open ad archives to EU antitrust regulators
Reuters: Online giants will have to open ad archives to EU antitrust regulators. “Dominant tech companies will have to explain how their algorithms work under proposed new EU rules and also open up their ad archives to regulators and researchers, Europe’s digital and antitrust chief said on Friday.”
Google to Employees: Don’t ‘Get Distracted’ by Antitrust Case (BNN Bloomberg)
BNN Bloomberg: Google to Employees: Don’t ‘Get Distracted’ by Antitrust Case. “The Justice Department’s antitrust case against Google bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. government lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. 20 years ago. Google is desperate not to make the same mistakes as its forerunner. The 1998 complaint, and Microsoft’s aggressive and scattered defense, is credited with slowing the software giant down and letting upstarts — including Google — gain a foothold. Even though Microsoft avoided being broken up, the years of public scrutiny and court drama were a debilitating distraction.”
Reuters: Judge sets November deadline for Google’s initial response to U.S. antitrust case
Reuters: Judge sets November deadline for Google’s initial response to U.S. antitrust case. “Alphabet’s Google must tell a district court how it will respond to a federal antitrust lawsuit by mid-November, with the two sides making initial disclosures later in the month, U.S. Judge Amit Mehta said in a brief order Friday.”