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Escaping it where - apparently not in the EU, although it's unclear what monopolies they actually have. In America they've escaped anti-trust attention because

Escaping it where - apparently not in the EU, although it's unclear what monopolies they actually have. In America they've escaped anti-trust attention because it's hard to prove any consumers have been harmed by their activities.

pyrale 8y ago
Well, maybe the EU will prove that such things are easier to see if you actually take a look.
- repolfx 8y ago
  They definitely won't because EU competition law doesn't care about whether there was harm to consumers or not. It's based on different principles to American law, arguably worse ones (harm to competitors, which is sort of the point of competition to begin with).
  - vntok 8y ago
    You may build a faster car engine than your competitor's so that your team can visit and close more prospects per day. You may not blow up the tires of your competitor's car so the other team cannot visit anyone.
    - repolfx 8y ago
      Blowing up tires is physical damage and does not require any specific anti-trust laws. That's the problem with metaphors - sometimes they obscure the reality of things. Anti-trust covers much vaguer and more debatable 'crimes'. For instance Microsoft was rapped over bundling Internet Explorer although every OS comes with a web browser these days and nobody considers it controversial anymore. The main crime was giving exclusivity discounts to customers, but that isn't specifically forbidden as far as I know. It's just an interpretation. At any rate, the EU doesn't require even the slightest analogue to 'blowing up tires'. They went after Google Shopping although Google was providing search referral and advertising to their own competitors - actually helping them, not hindering them. The existence of other big product search engines like Amazon didn't help, the EU fined them anyway. I didn't believe before that EU anti-trust enforcement was based on the rule of law, and Verhofstadt appears to have confirmed it today.
      - pyrale 8y ago
        > For instance Microsoft was rapped over bundling Internet Explorer ...And Google uses all of their products to tell you it's better to use Chrome, frequently destroy businesses by offering their own services in cards at the top of searches, which represent billions in free advertising, force Google store with their android OEMs, etc. If Microsoft has been condemned for leveraging their dominant position in a market to get advantage in another market, Google should have been condemned years ago, for the same reason.

pyrale 8y ago

Well, maybe the EU will prove that such things are easier to see if you actually take a look.

repolfx 8y ago
They definitely won't because EU competition law doesn't care about whether there was harm to consumers or not. It's based on different principles to American law, arguably worse ones (harm to competitors, which is sort of the point of competition to begin with).
- vntok 8y ago
  You may build a faster car engine than your competitor's so that your team can visit and close more prospects per day. You may not blow up the tires of your competitor's car so the other team cannot visit anyone.
  - repolfx 8y ago
    Blowing up tires is physical damage and does not require any specific anti-trust laws. That's the problem with metaphors - sometimes they obscure the reality of things. Anti-trust covers much vaguer and more debatable 'crimes'. For instance Microsoft was rapped over bundling Internet Explorer although every OS comes with a web browser these days and nobody considers it controversial anymore. The main crime was giving exclusivity discounts to customers, but that isn't specifically forbidden as far as I know. It's just an interpretation. At any rate, the EU doesn't require even the slightest analogue to 'blowing up tires'. They went after Google Shopping although Google was providing search referral and advertising to their own competitors - actually helping them, not hindering them. The existence of other big product search engines like Amazon didn't help, the EU fined them anyway. I didn't believe before that EU anti-trust enforcement was based on the rule of law, and Verhofstadt appears to have confirmed it today.
    - pyrale 8y ago
      > For instance Microsoft was rapped over bundling Internet Explorer ...And Google uses all of their products to tell you it's better to use Chrome, frequently destroy businesses by offering their own services in cards at the top of searches, which represent billions in free advertising, force Google store with their android OEMs, etc. If Microsoft has been condemned for leveraging their dominant position in a market to get advantage in another market, Google should have been condemned years ago, for the same reason.