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> A watch company should not be a movie studio. > A movie studio should not be a grocery store. > A search engine paying for 100% placement should not also be

by snitty 3y ago

> A watch company should not be a movie studio. > A movie studio should not be a grocery store. > A search engine paying for 100% placement should not also be a music platform, movie platform, thermostat vendor, cloud vendor, ... Then what's the lawful distance between goods and services that company should be able to offer? I get the position that big is bad, and I don't entirely disagree with that, but selling watches offers no unfair benefit to apple in the movie studio business, and vice versa. It's not like they're tying one good to another, or leveraging market power in one to gain market power in the other. So if we want to say that you can't run a company that makes consumer electronic devices and a movie studio (see also, Sony, Amazon), then what's the limit? Should a company that makes motorcycles be allowed to sell, say, fine stringed instruments (Yamaha)? What about a company that makes industrial adhesives? Should they be allowed to also sell office supplies (3M)?

echelon 3y ago
> It's not like they're tying one good to another, or leveraging market power in one to gain market power in the other. That's absolutely what's happening! > So if we want to say that you can't run a company that makes consumer electronic devices and a movie studio (see also, Sony, Amazon), then what's the limit? There are a lot of possible litmus tests for this. Is the company using the new market to put eyeballs on its existing product offering, making itself stronger at the expense of players in the new market (Amazon Prime Movies, Apple TV)? Is the company undercutting the costs of existing incumbents by offering products and services below cost (Apple TV)? Is the company hiring away talent from the other market or building exclusive partnerships (Apple Automotive)? Do consumer choices get made due to benefits of bundling with an unrelated market segment (Amazon Prime)? Does it help the company streamline delivery of their platform into the new market and collect taxes or information in a new way (Apple and Google Pay)?

by snitty 3y ago

echelon 3y ago

> It's not like they're tying one good to another, or leveraging market power in one to gain market power in the other. That's absolutely what's happening! > So if we want to say that you can't run a company that makes consumer electronic devices and a movie studio (see also, Sony, Amazon), then what's the limit? There are a lot of possible litmus tests for this. Is the company using the new market to put eyeballs on its existing product offering, making itself stronger at the expense of players in the new market (Amazon Prime Movies, Apple TV)? Is the company undercutting the costs of existing incumbents by offering products and services below cost (Apple TV)? Is the company hiring away talent from the other market or building exclusive partnerships (Apple Automotive)? Do consumer choices get made due to benefits of bundling with an unrelated market segment (Amazon Prime)? Does it help the company streamline delivery of their platform into the new market and collect taxes or information in a new way (Apple and Google Pay)?