The Verge: Facebook’s antitrust investigation could finish as soon as next year. “Facebook’s looming antitrust fight could come as soon as next year, according to statements by FTC Chairman Joe Simons reported by the Financial Times. Simons told FT that he sees the 2020 elections as a looming deadline for the probe, and would seek to make any finding before November 2020 as a result.”
antitrust
Sydney Morning Herald: ACCC gears up for court battle with Google and Facebook
Sydney Morning Herald: ACCC gears up for court battle with Google and Facebook. “Competition tsar Rod Sims has revealed that his agency’s ongoing investigations into misconduct by Google and Facebook have advanced significantly, setting the stage for a potential showdown between the regulator and digital giants in court.”
Exclusive: Google’s jobs search draws antitrust complaints from rivals (Reuters)
Reuters: Exclusive: Google’s jobs search draws antitrust complaints from rivals. “Google’s fast-growing tool for searching job listings has been a boon for employers and job boards starving for candidates, but several rival job-finding services contend anti-competitive behavior has fueled its rise and cost them users and profits.”
New York Times: How Facebook Is Changing to Deal With Scrutiny of Its Power
New York Times: How Facebook Is Changing to Deal With Scrutiny of Its Power. ” Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for the breakup of big tech companies like Facebook. Regulators have opened investigations into Facebook’s power in social networking. Even one of Facebook’s own founders has laid out a case for why the company needs to be split up. Now the world’s biggest social network has started to modify its behavior — in both pre-emptive and defensive ways — to deal with those threats.”
BloombergQuint: DOJ Scrutinizes Google Advertising, Search in Antitrust Probe
BloombergQuint: DOJ Scrutinizes Google Advertising, Search in Antitrust Probe. “The Justice Department is scrutinizing Google’s digital advertising and search operations as authorities gear up a broad antitrust review of the market power of giant internet companies, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Reuters: Google to be fined a record €4.3 billion over Android OS
Reuters: Google to be fined a record €4.3 billion over Android OS. “The European Commission is set to fine Google a record €4.3 billion (R71.49 billion) today over its Android mobile operating system, a source close to the matter said.” 4.3 billion euros is a little more than 4.8 billion USD. And remember, Google parent company Alphabet has $117 billion in cash reserves .
Don’t Let This Get Lost In The Shuffle: The Data Transfer Project Is Expanding, And Could Help Create Real Competition Online (Techdirt)
Techdirt: Don’t Let This Get Lost In The Shuffle: The Data Transfer Project Is Expanding, And Could Help Create Real Competition Online. “While lots of people are angling to break up the big internet companies in the belief that will lead to more competition, we’ve long argued that such a plan is unlikely to work. Instead, if you truly want more competition you need to end the ability of these companies to lock up your data. Instead, we need to allow third parties access so that the data is not stuck in silos, but where users themselves both have control and alternative options that they can easily move to. That’s why we were quite interested a year ago when Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter officially announced the Data Transfer Project (which initially began as a Google project, but expanded to those other providers a year ago).”
