3 ms·
Is there any precedent for this kind of situation? The product is free, and Facebook is paying someone else to make access to their product cheaper. The more ty
by natrius 16y ago
Is there any precedent for this kind of situation? The product is free, and Facebook is paying someone else to make access to their product cheaper. The more typical cases of dumping[1] involve companies subsidizing their own products. The net result seems the same, but it feels a little different.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumping_(pricing_policy)
- _delirium 16y agoYeah, I'm not aware of any precedent with that specific arrangement (though that doesn't mean there isn't one). My guess (purely a guess) is that US courts wouldn't consider it anticompetitive without more of a smoking gun, especially since Facebook isn't a monopoly (they have strong market position, maybe even dominance, but not anything like what e.g. Microsoft had in late-90s desktop OSs). If you are a monopoly, subsidizing almost anything gets looked at under a microscope.