Competition Law News
EC Antitrust Law Enforcers Accept Apple Pay Promises
The European Commission has made legally binding the commitments Apple offered to address antitrust concerns about its refusal to give Apple rivals access to the…
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DOJ, State and DC AGs: Apple’s Conduct in Smartphone Market Violates Antitrust Laws
Apple uses anticompetitive tactics to lock in consumers and developers, government says. Apple will even sacrifice quality to thwart innovation and competition, according to the…
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EC Fines Apple $2 Billion for Abusing Power in Music Streaming App Market
The European Commission has fined Apple more than €1.8 billion ($2 billion) for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the market for the distribution of…
Supreme Court Opens Door for App Developers to Circumvent Apple Payment System
High court lets Ninth Circuit opinion stand, but the conflict isn’t over. What just happened? Last week the Supreme Court denied Apple Inc.’s petition to…
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DOJ Closer to Filing New Antitrust Case Against Apple, NYTs Reports
Does Apple use its hardware/software control to hamper switching and competing? The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice is in the “late stages” of…
Antitrust Fines Against Apple and Amazon Scrapped in Italy
At the start of October, an Italian administrative court ruled that Apple and Amazon no longer have to pay a $225 million fine levied by…
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France Fines Apple $1.2 Billion for ‘Running a Cartel’
French competition authority, Autorité de la Concurrence, fined Apple a record $1.2 billion after their investigation found that Apple and its wholesale partners, Ingram Micro…
Credit Card Issuers File Antitrust Suit Against Apple for Exclusionary Conduct in Mobile Tap-and-Pay Market
Apple Operating an Illegal Monopoloy in Tap-and-Pay Market, Suit Says The convenience of the tap-and-pay mobile wallet model is a feature consumers increasingly enjoy for…
App Developer’s Antitrust Case Against Apple Looking Durable
Court Says Licensing Agreement Does Not Bar App Maker Litigation A federal judge has rejected Apple Inc.’s interpretation of its app licensing agreement in the…
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Will Facebook Sue Apple?
Facebook reportedly planning to sue Apple for alleged antitrust violations. According to sources speaking to TheInformation.com, Facebook believes Apple abused its power in the smartphone…
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Pistacchio vs. Apple: iPhone Gamers Claim Anticompetitive Behavior in Subscription Game Market
Apple iPhone gamer John Pistacchio filed a proposed class action against Apple, Inc. on behalf of purchasers of “Apple Arcade,” a subscription mobile gaming service…
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Apple Fires Back at Epic Games in Fortnite Fight
Responding to Epic Games’ bold suit against Apple (and separately against Google) — alleging anticompetitive operation of the Apple Store — the computer and mobile…
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Apple, Inc. Probed by European Commission for Possible Antitrust Violations
In late June, the European Commission (EC) opened several formal cases investigating Apple’s mobile payment technology (Apple Pay) and various third-party and user agreements to…
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New York Times: Spotify Accuses Apple of Anticompetitive Practices in Europe
From The New York Times: Spotify Accuses Apple of Anticompetitive Practices in Europe Is Apple abusing its power to monopolize the market? Spotify sure thinks…
Corning, Leading Maker of Mobile Device Screens, Subject of Antitrust Investigation in Europe
The European Commission announced on Nov. 5 it is investigating Corning Inc., maker of the popular Gorilla Glass product used for many mobile device screens,…
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Epic Sues Google Again, This Time Adding Samsung
The fight over the lucrative app market ropes another manufacturer into the fray. Nine months after persuading a jury that Google LLC had monopolized the…
DOJ Sues Visa for Monopolizing Debit Network Markets
Exclusionary conduct has been a key to Visa’s success. The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Visa Inc. in…
DOJ Antitrust Division Subpoenas AI Chip Leader Nvidia
Report suggests DOJ is examining anticompetitive pricing strategies to lock up customers, lock out competitors. Bloomberg News reports that the Department of Justice Antitrust Division…
FTC Briefs Court on Remedies to Defang Google App Store Monopoly
FTC advocates for relief that has lasting impact that stops illegal conduct, prevents recurrence, and restores competition. The Federal Trade Commission has offered U.S. District…
DOJ, FTC Target AI Industry in Antitrust Investigation: Three Takeaways
According to a report from New York Times reporter David McCabe, federal regulators have agreed to share responsibilities for investigating antitrust issues within the artificial…
Google, Meta List Efforts to Comply with New EU Law After Smaller Firms Claim No Progress
DMA will constitute a ‘paradigm shift in digital markets,’ say rivals. The world’s leading tech, ecommerce, and social media companies have until March 7,…
Multifamily Home Renters Defeat Motion to Dismiss RealPage Rental Antitrust Case
Case addresses antitrust implications when competitors use algorithms to make pricing decisions. A ruling by U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee has kept alive a…
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Intel Fined $400M in Europe for Abusing Dominance in CPU Market
Naked Restriction: EC finds Intel paid computer makers to delay products using competing chips. Citing what it calls Intel Corp.’s series of anticompetitive efforts to…
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Six More Platforms Must Show Compliance with EU’s Digital Markets Act
Signaling greater antitrust scrutiny in Europe, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft have earned designations as “gatekeepers” by the European Commission…
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Amazon’s iRobot Acquisition Faces Shareholder and Consumer Resistance as FTC Investigates
iRobot Corp. shareholders approved Amazon.com, Inc.’s $1.7 billion purchase of the Roomba maker on Oct. 17, while a pre-trial conference in a suit brought by…
FTC Sues to Block Meta from Acquiring Leading VR Developer
FTC Accuses Meta of Trying to Further Dominate Virtual Reality Ecosystem via Acquisition. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit against Meta Platforms, Inc. (fka…
Nvidia and SoftBank’s Arm Call Off Vertical Merger
Facing challenges from antitrust enforcers on three continents, U.S. microchip giant Nvidia Corp. has called off its acquisition of British computer processing designer Arm Ltd.,…
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Amazon Misleading Consumers About Sponsored Products, Labor Group Says
Group tells FTC Amazon is abusing consumer trust. “Amazon doesn’t distinguish well enough between paid ads and organic search results, something that could trick consumers”…
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U.S. Antitrust Law Not Working for Book or Tech Market?
“American antitrust is basically a failure.” That’s a quote from a law professor in a recent New York Times article written by Shira Ovide titled…
Thirty-Eight AGs Bring a Third Antitrust Case Against Google
Google Illegally Maintained Monopolies, Created Insurmountable Barriers to Entry for Competitors, Suit Says A bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general have sued Google LLC for…
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Antitrust Subcommittee and Big Tech CEOs: Creatures From Very Different Planets
A Tale of Two Hearings: Breaking Down the July 2020 Hearing on Tech Marketplace They appeared at the hearing, appropriately enough, digitally. This allowed…
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Good Read: ‘The Great Antitrust Awakening Can’t Be Stopped’
Do the big tech companies — and those of us who enjoy their myriad innovations — owe a big “thank you” to the federal government…
