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If any of those entities have a functional monopoly, then yes they will (and in my opinion should) experience restrictions on those activities. The bill is draf
by DoughnutHole 4y ago
If any of those entities have a functional monopoly, then yes they will (and in my opinion should) experience restrictions on those activities. The bill is drafted to target the big players.
Antitrust laws aren't meant to be fair, they're specifically intended to make business harder for the monopolies affected and easier for their competition. They're meant to put a finger on the scales to counterbalance the massive anti-competitive advantages afforded by having a monopoly. The most benign of actions can make competing basically impossible when they're performed by a company that has complete control over the market.
We do this because monopolies in a vacuum are self-reinforcing and that leads to dysfunction in the market. Monopolies don't have to have a better product or service to remain a monopoly - the power to crush the competition afforded by having captured the market is often enough to maintain it.
- scarface74 4y agoWhich one of those “monopolistic” companies are actually legally a monopoly? For instance, does poor little Walmart - the largest retailer in the US - really need help competing with Amazon? Much more travel already goes through Priceline than Google. Do people really not know about Priceline from the years of Shatner commercials?
- DoughnutHole 4y agoGoogle is unambiguously a monopoly - they have a 90%+ market share in search. Whether or not they're engaging in anti-competitive behaviour is the big question - whether or not they have a monopoly in search is not really debatable. For example Standard Oil, the 20th century poster child for monopolistic abuses and origin of modern anti-trust law also had a market share of ~90%. [EDIT because I found bad data about Walmart] Walmart is definitely also a monopoly or close to it - they have a share of ~70% of the grocery market, and should also be subject to restrictive antitrust rules, or even broken up. They don't have a monopoly in online retail where Amazon controls over ~55% of the market. But the fact that Walmart has a monopoly in one industry does not say anything about possible anti-competitive behaviour by Amazon in another. Amazon's not quite a monopoly in online retail yet but it's definitely trending in a worrying direction.
- scarface74 4y agoBy what definition is 55% a “monopoly”? And by “breaking up Walmart”, what do you suggest? That they are forced to remove groceries from their stores? In “online travel sites”, Google is a tiny player. https://www.statista.com/topics/2704/online-travel-market/#dossierKeyfigures https://www.statista.com/topics/2704/online-travel-market/#d...