> I'm not sure how I can exercise my market power to avoid this strategy That's easy: don't be misled by "free" services which obviously aren't actually free b

> I'm not sure how I can exercise my market power to avoid this strategy That's easy: don't be misled by "free" services which obviously aren't actually free because they obviously require significant costs to produce. That's how tech giants like Google and Facebook actually got their dominant market positions: not just by using VC funds to build the infrastructure needed, but by deliberately not charging their users for the service and instead going for the ad-supported business model. In terms of market power, this is (or at least should be) obvious: if you aren't paying for the service, you don't have any market power, and that's not a good position to be in.