Amazon gets “last rites” from FTC as antitrust complaint looks imminent
After a yearslong Amazon probe that collected millions of documents and conducted dozens of interviews, the Federal Trade Commission next week will meet with Amazon representatives before likely filing one of the agency's biggest antitrust lawsuits yet, Politico reported. Known as a "last-rites meeting," these discussions could serve as Amazon's last chance to dodge an…
In win for Google, judge dismisses many claims in DOJ monopoly...
Over the weekend, a US district court judge decided to narrow the scope of the federal government's massive years-long monopoly case against Google. In his opinion unsealed Friday, Judge Amit Mehta dismissed one of the more significant claims raised in the case brought by the Justice Department and the attorneys general from 38 states that…
Microsoft Teams + Office bundle leads to official EU antitrust probe
Getty Images European Union regulators have opened a formal investigation into claims that Microsoft is unfairly bundling its Teams video conferencing app with its popular Office software as Brussels intensifies its scrutiny of big technology groups. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said on Thursday that it feared Microsoft “may be abusing…
FTC rewrites rules on Big Tech mergers with aim to ease...
Enlarge / Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission. Antitrust enforcers released a draft update outlining new rules today that officials say will make it easier to crack down on mergers and acquisitions that could substantially lessen competition in the US. Now the public has 60 days to review the draft guidelines and submit…
Microsoft is facing another hurdle in closing a $70 billion deal...
The FTC just filed a new lawsuit to seek to stop Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard. Terms of the Microsoft-Activision tie-up call for the deal to be closed by July 18, the AP reports. Microsoft has been trying to win the OK from global regulators for the nearly $70 billion purchase. Loading Something is loading.…
Misclassifying employees as gig workers creates ‘a race to the bottom’...
Contractors lack many of the labor protections of workers directly employed by a company. Businesses have an incentive to misclassify workers as contractors to undermine their competitors, according to the DOJ Antitrust Division. Misclassification may keep workers from finding a better workplace, DOJ argued. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite…
UK competition watchdog launches review of AI market
Sean Gladwell via Getty The UK competition watchdog is launching a review of the artificial intelligence market, including the models behind popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, as the industry comes increasingly into global regulators’ crosshairs. Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, said the watchdog would examine so-called foundation models—such as…
Meta likely abused its ‘dominant position’ in the ad market by...
Adloox, a French ad company, complained to regulators about Meta last October. Meta's program to let companies see data about their ads is invite-only, and Adloox was rejected. The French regulator gave Meta two months to change its "potentially anticompetitive" criteria. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a…
App Store developers can link to payment methods outside the store,...
Epic Games brought a lawsuit against Apple after "Fortnite" was removed from the App Store in 2020. On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that Apple's "anti-steering" provision was uncompetitive. So now App Store developers can link to outside payment systems to avoid the 30% fee. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access…
Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure face antitrust probe
The UK’s communications watchdog has called for a probe into Microsoft and Amazon’s dominance of the country’s cloud computing market in the latest challenge to the tech giants from global regulators. Ofcom said on Wednesday it was “particularly concerned” by the practices of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which together control between 60 and 70…