E78 – Google and Antitrust

Google and Antitrust

In the episode, the nonlawyers Dave and Mat (and Elmer as well) are joined by a real lawyer. As we stated in the past, Steve is a lawyer but not your lawyer! The notes below are a fairly high-level summary so while we try and break things down here this is one of those topics and episodes where you really need to listen to it yourself.

What is the difference between Antitrust (US) and Competition Law (EU & Most of the World)?

  • Just because a company is large does NOT make it an antitrust or competition issue. A company must not only be large but be a “bad actor” as well.
  • Monopolist – you can be at 60, 70 or even just 80% of market share, not 100% to run into antitrust and compeition rules.
  • Monopoly – big actors taking bad actions.

What does a “bad act” look like?

  • Does it hurt or help consumers choice?
  • Does it directly exclude competitors and do so in a non-competitive way? An example of this is the Google Shopping case in the EU currently happening.
  • One of the examples given is when you search for the weather (example below).

Google Shopping Case

The show digs slightly into the current Google vs. EU case in regards to Google Shopping. For more, you can leverage the links below.

Google vs EU Android Case

Again we encourage you to listen to our discussion but also look at the resources below for additional context. Is Android good for the ecosystem? What about Apple and their gated system? Is Google being a “bad actor” or are they protecting the consumer? What do you think?

What about Google Dominance?

Will the US start clamping down on Ad Platforms like Facebook and Google?

The short answer is of course – it depends and maybe.

  • Much of the growth comes from FB and Google per this article.
  • Bloomberg quotes eMarketer and puts the number just under 60% for Google & FB.

Google and Facebook remain the dominant digital advertising companies, with a combined 58 percent of the $111 billion market, slipping from 59 percent in 2017, according to EMarketer.


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