October 2021 | 174 comments (174 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

disturbance in the US antitrust farce (none / 0)

Like the EC, CHINA tightens political control of [domestic] internet giants

The party says ~~anti-monopoly~~ antitrust enforcement will be a priority through 2025. It says competition will help create jobs and raise living standards.
[...]
Products from China wouldn't function in the United States or Europe, and vice versa. Innovation and efficiency would suffer.

< wipes tears >

Alibaba said it will invest $28 billion to develop operating system software, processor chips and network technology. The company has pledged $1 billion to nurture 100,000 developers and tech startups over the next three years. Last year, Tencent promised to invest $70 billion in digital infrastructure. Meituan, an e-commerce, delivery and service platform, raised $10 billion to develop self-driving vehicles and robots.

[INCONTINENCE ALERT]

A law that takes effect Nov. 1 establishes security standards, prohibits companies from disclosing information without customer permission and tells them to limit how much they collect. Unlike data protection laws in Western countries, the Chinese rules say nothing about limiting government or ruling party access to personal information.
[...]
Beijing is also using the crackdown to narrow China's politically sensitive wealth gap by pushing tech giants to share their wealth with employees and consumers.

Google seeks to overturn $5.1 bln EU fine
archived Eric Li in The Coming War Against China (Pilger, 2016)

by Cat on Mon Oct 4th, 2021 at 04:00:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: disturbance in the US antitrust farce (none / 0)

chum in the water

Banasevic is far from being the first high-profile name to jump ship this year. His move follows the departure of two other top competition officials with long experience in fighting Silicon Valley giants -- Cecilio Madero Villarejo and Carles Esteva Mosso -- who also are joining law firms that act for the very same companies. Madero was the chief of antitrust within the Commission's competition department when Vestager launched her crusade against Google.

by Cat on Tue Oct 5th, 2021 at 12:24:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: disturbance in the US antitrust farce (none / 0)

Facebook asks court to dismiss FTC antitrust complaint

"The FTC's fictional market ignores the competitive reality: Facebook competes vigorously with TikTok, iMessage, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, and countless others to help people share, connect, communicate or simply be entertained," Facebook said in a statement. "The FTC cannot credibly claim Facebook has monopoly power because no such power exists."
[...]
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had ruled in June that the FTC's original lawsuit was "legally insufficient" and didn't provide enough evidence to prove Facebook was a monopoly. He dismissed the states' separate complaint outright.

You get what you pay for.

archived Essays in competition policy, "Identifying antitrust markets"

by Cat on Tue Oct 5th, 2021 at 03:32:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: disturbance in the US antitrust farce (none / 0)

"involuntary public figure" has entered the shadow docket.
archived no relation

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Oct 13th, 2021 at 07:19:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]

they/them/their gender/sex publicity (none / 0)

Heard v Depp v Heard

Judge won't send ~~Johnny Depp's defamation suit~~ Amber Heard's $100M counter claim to Virginia Supreme Court

In a ruling from the bench, Judge Penney Azcarate refused to allow lawyers for actress Amber Heard, Depp's ex-wife, to petition the Virginia Supreme Court to weigh in on legal issues at the core of her last attempt to dismiss ~~the~~ Depp's case.
Essentially, [Heard's] attorneys wanted the state's high court to tackle whether [USA] case law supports their contention that the court should embrace findings from a United Kingdom [libel laundry] that Depp, 58, abused his ex-wife on a dozen occasions. This would have ended the [Depp's] Virginia case, which is ~~based upon~~ Depp's charge that Heard, 35, defamed him by describing herself as a domestic abuse survivor.
[...]
Filed in March 2019, Depp contends that an op-ed written by Heard and published in the Washington Post defamed him....Depp lost his "Pirates of the Caribbean" part four days after publication of the editorial.
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Depp's attorney, Ben Chew ... pointed out that in August, Azcarate handed down a 10-page opinion rejecting [Heard's] argument that the case should be dismissed because of the U.K. ruling.
[...]
In her opinion, Azcarate noted, "[Depp's] defamation claim [against The Sun] in the U.K. was based on completely different statements than the present case." In her ruling today, Azcarate ticked through each legal standard required to send [Heard's appeal] to the Virginia Supreme Court and concluded that the case didn't qualify.