Free Republic

European leaders announced this week they will try to steal up to $800 million from Apple and Meta with bogus antitrust penalties under the EU’s Digital Marketing Act. This fine is what we call “sour grapes” economics. The socialist nations of Europe can’t compete in the tech space, and so they are penalizing Apple and Meta because of their superiority in cell phone services and social media applications. The issue is whether Apple and Meta should be able to bundle services on their product lines and social media platforms. The answer, of course, is yes; they built it and they...

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly offered the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nearly $1 billion to keep a case out of court that could break up his social media empire. Zuckerberg sat for a third day of testimony on Wednesday in an antitrust case brought against his company by the FTC, which is attempting to force Meta to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp over what the government has said are Meta’s anticompetitive business practices. Zuckerberg called the head of the FTC, Chairman Andrew Ferguson, in March to try to settle the case out of court. Zuckerberg initially offered the...

Today the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice prevailed in its second monopolization case against Google. In United States et al. v. Google, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held that Google violated antitrust law by monopolizing open-web digital advertising markets. According to the Court, Google “harmed Google’s publishing customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web.” “This is a landmark victory in the ongoing fight to stop Google from monopolizing the digital public square,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “This Department of Justice will continue taking bold legal action...

Today, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and the FBI jointly announced the launch of a new online portal for information on international fugitives who have been charged with antitrust offenses and other crimes affecting the competitive process. The Antitrust Division and FBI are committed to bringing individuals to court to face their charges, wherever they are located.“Individuals charged with anticompetitive crimes should understand that the DOJ Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will take all available steps to ensure that they answer the charges in court,” said Director of Criminal Enforcement Emma Burnham of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division....

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation gave a fresh deadline of Feb. 10 to BlackRock to resolve an issue regarding oversight into the asset manager’s investments in FDIC-regulated banking organizations, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing three people with knowledge of the matter. The FDIC may open an investigation into BlackRock and demand more information from the company if it fails to make sufficient progress toward resolving the issues, the report said. The move by the FDIC follows a Jan. 10 deadline that BlackRock failed to meet, according to the report. snip BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now collectively control some...

Brian Thompson, the slain CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down on Wednesday while top executives at his company have reportedly been under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for alleged insider trading and a monopoly. “Multiple senior executives at UnitedHealthcare have been under investigation by the Department of Justice, though it is not clear if CEO Brian Thompson was part of that investigation before his murder,” reported Fox Business. “There were reports that the executives were accused of insider trading and fraud, and last year the DOJ launched a probe into whether the nation’s largest insurer was unfairly restricting...

No one was sure what a Kamala Harris presidency would mean for Lina Khan, the controversial chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) appointed by President Joe Biden. But with Harris, too, on her way out, and Republicans slated to take over the White House, we can probably say goodbye—and good riddance—to Khan's reign. With Khan heading the agency, the FTC has taken an aggressive stance against mergers and acquisitions, an aggressive stance against big tech companies, and an odd view of the agency's purpose and authority. "Khan has framed several regulatory issues in the dramatic terms of someone facing...

On Sept. 27, US Rep. Majorie Taylor-Greene warned about the ramifications of a strike in a tweet. Rep. Greene claims, “It’s very important to understand how critical this is given that America is now in a $36 billion dollar food trade deficit for the first time in our nation’s history. Also, the Biden-Harris administration and congressional out-of-control spending have driven inflation so high that many Americans can’t afford quality of life. I think this situation is serious and, depending on whether they strike and how long it lasts, could be a crisis going into the election, holidays, and winter.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), sold between $500,000 and $1 million worth of Visa stock, according to public records, just weeks before the Justice Department launched a lawsuit against the credit card company on Tuesday. The finding raises concerns that many members of Congress trade stocks based on information unavailable to the public. Seventy-six percent of voters believe congressional members and their spouses have an “unfair advantage” in trading stocks. Paul Pelosi traded the stock before the DOJ launched a probe into Visa for allegedly monopolizing the debit card market, Bloomberg reported. The New York Post...

Google blamed a ‘glitch’ for how the Harris Camp was able to edit news headlines to make it look like major news outlets favored her. As previously reported, the Harris Campaign edited news headlines with Google search ads to make it appear major news outlets such as Reuters, CBS News, CNN, NPR and AP are on her side. While these major news outlets are shilling for Harris, her campaign edited the news headlines without the outlets’ consent or knowledge. The ads say “sponsored” but the outlets did not publish the text. The favorable headlines were written by the Harris...

Google was found last week to have violated antitrust law by illegally maintaining a monopoly in internet search. Now discussions over how to fix those violations have begun. Justice Department officials are considering what remedies to ask a federal judge to order against the search giant, said three people with knowledge of the deliberations involving the agency and state attorneys general who helped to bring the case. They are discussing various proposals, including breaking off parts of Google, such as its Chrome browser or Android smartphone operating system, two of the people said. Other scenarios under consideration include forcing Google...

LONGBOAT KEY, Fla., Aug. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rumble (NASDAQ:RUM), the video-sharing platform and cloud services provider, announced that it has joined the social media platform X to file antitrust lawsuits alleging a conspiracy to withhold advertising revenue from Rumble and other digital media platforms. In its filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Rumble named as defendants the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), as well as the advertising agency WPP and its subsidiary GroupM Worldwide.

X on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of major advertisers, claiming that it had violated antitrust laws by coordinating with brands to dissuade them from spending money on the social media platform. The suit, filed in federal court in Texas, claims that the coalition, known as GARM, “conspired” with leading brands, including CVS, Unilever and the Danish energy company Ørsted to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” that were owed to X, then known as Twitter, in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company in 2022....

To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott. This behavior is a stain on a great industry, and cannot be allowed to continue. That is why, today, X has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and GARM members CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever. This is not a decision we took lightly, but it is a direct consequence of their actions.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in his 277-page ruling. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and several dozen state attorneys general had sued Google, accusing the company of paying billions of dollars to Apple, Samsung and other companies to make Google the default search provider on smartphones and web browsers. "This victory against Google is an historic win for the American people," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "No company—no matter how large or...

New York CNN — Google has violated US antitrust law with its search business, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing the tech giant a staggering court defeat with the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get information online and to upend decades of dominance. The decision by the US District Court for the District of Columbia is a stunning rebuke of Google’s oldest and most important business. The company has spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.

Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Oregon would see the biggest number of stores flipped to C&S.. Kroger and Albertsons have released a list of hundreds of stores that would be divested to C&S Wholesale Grocers if federal regulators approve its proposed $24.6 billion merger deal, and the states with the largest numbers include Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Under the proposal, Kroger and Albertsons would divest stores in Washington (124), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), Oregon (62), Illinois (35), Texas (28), Nevada (16), and Alaska (18). Several states would see 10 or fewer stores divested, including: Idaho (10), New Mexico...

The Justice Department sued Ticketmaster and its parent company Thursday, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events in America and asking a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans. Filed in federal court in Manhattan, the sweeping antitrust lawsuit was brought with 30 state and district attorneys general and seeks to dismantle the monopoly they say is squeezing out smaller promoters, hurting artists and drowning ticket buyers in fees. Ticketmaster and its owner, Live Nation Entertainment, have a long history of clashes with major artists and their fans, including...

U.S. plans antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster parent Live Nation The Department of Justice and a group of U.S. state attorneys general on Thursday plan to sue ticketing giant Live Nation on antitrust grounds, a source familiar with the DOJ's plans told Axios. Why it matters: The outcome of the legal battle with one of the largest ticketing and live events companies in the U.S. could fundamentally upend the industry. Details: The DOJ plans to announce in a midday press conference on Thursday that it is suing Live Nation alongside several states for illegally abusing its monopoly power in live ticketing...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct.” The lawsuit — which was also filed with 16 state attorneys general — is the latest example of the Justice Department’s approach to aggressive enforcement of federal antitrust law that...