4 ms·

Let the EU shakedown for money begin! This has nothing to do with anti-trust and everything to do with extracting a kilo of flesh from a successful non-EU comp

Let the EU shakedown for money begin! This has nothing to do with anti-trust and everything to do with extracting a kilo of flesh from a successful non-EU company.

declan 12y ago
You might be interested in a classic (well, pre-Microsoft antitrust) book written by a professor who has specialized in antitrust law. I've interviewed him a few times. Excerpt: "Professor Armentano thoroughly researches the classic cases in antitrust law and demonstrates a surprising gap between the stated aims of antitrust law and what it actually accomplishes in the real world. Instead of protecting competition, Professor Armentano finds, antitrust law actually protects certain politically-favored competitors. This is an essential work for anyone wishing to understand the limitations and problems of contemporary antitrust actions." http://www.amazon.com/Antitrust-Monopoly-Anatomy-Independent-Political/dp/0945999623 http://www.amazon.com/Antitrust-Monopoly-Anatomy-Independent...
tajen 12y ago
So what? US has signed bilateral trade agreements with EU for that reason. As much as EU may benefit from fines on US companies, it's still a strict application of the law. US also benefits from the strict application of their laws when EU companies try to enter the US market. Actually, EU companies rarely try it. Guess why.
- outside1234 12y ago
  I think my point is that I can't find a case where an EU company has been threatened with antitrust action in the EU (or the US). Do you have a counter example? (Genuinely curious not trolling) That leads me to believe these laws are "not strictly applied" but politically applied.
  - rlongstaff 12y ago
    Get searching: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm I think you'll find the overwhelming majority are European companies.
matt4077 12y ago
Check page 3 on this list: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/statistics/statistics.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/statistics/statistic.... Of the ten highest cartel fines, only one was levelled against a non-European company (LG Electronics).
- dublinclontarf 12y ago
  This is because European companies aren't good enough to get to "monopoly" status, much to the commissions chagrin.
  - Oletros 12y ago
    > This is because European companies aren't good enough to get to "monopoly" status, much to the commissions chagrin. I think you misunderstood what the OP said
  - Alphasite_ 12y ago
    Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but he is saying 9/10 of the largest fines (of this type) were towards EU companies.
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
> This has nothing to do with anti-trust It has everything to do with anti-trust. Google's near-monopoly on search is dangerous, and they've abused it multiple times. Google News and Yelp are good examples: they would steal content (not just link to it as they'd have you believe), then threaten to delist the victim's sites if they complained.
- muro 12y ago
  Google News shows a snippet + link to original page, just like search. The difference is that it groups articles about the same thing together. I don't understand your argument.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    That's not always been the case. Google News used to copy the entire article content.

Let the EU shakedown for money begin! This has nothing to do with anti-trust and everything to do with extracting a kilo of flesh from a successful non-EU company.

declan 12y ago

You might be interested in a classic (well, pre-Microsoft antitrust) book written by a professor who has specialized in antitrust law. I've interviewed him a few times. Excerpt: "Professor Armentano thoroughly researches the classic cases in antitrust law and demonstrates a surprising gap between the stated aims of antitrust law and what it actually accomplishes in the real world. Instead of protecting competition, Professor Armentano finds, antitrust law actually protects certain politically-favored competitors. This is an essential work for anyone wishing to understand the limitations and problems of contemporary antitrust actions." http://www.amazon.com/Antitrust-Monopoly-Anatomy-Independent-Political/dp/0945999623 http://www.amazon.com/Antitrust-Monopoly-Anatomy-Independent...

tajen 12y ago

So what? US has signed bilateral trade agreements with EU for that reason. As much as EU may benefit from fines on US companies, it's still a strict application of the law. US also benefits from the strict application of their laws when EU companies try to enter the US market. Actually, EU companies rarely try it. Guess why.

outside1234 12y ago
I think my point is that I can't find a case where an EU company has been threatened with antitrust action in the EU (or the US). Do you have a counter example? (Genuinely curious not trolling) That leads me to believe these laws are "not strictly applied" but politically applied.
- rlongstaff 12y ago
  Get searching: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/competition/elojade/isef/index.cfm I think you'll find the overwhelming majority are European companies.

matt4077 12y ago

Check page 3 on this list: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/statistics/statistics.pdf http://ec.europa.eu/competition/cartels/statistics/statistic.... Of the ten highest cartel fines, only one was levelled against a non-European company (LG Electronics).

dublinclontarf 12y ago
This is because European companies aren't good enough to get to "monopoly" status, much to the commissions chagrin.
- Oletros 12y ago
  > This is because European companies aren't good enough to get to "monopoly" status, much to the commissions chagrin. I think you misunderstood what the OP said
- Alphasite_ 12y ago
  Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but he is saying 9/10 of the largest fines (of this type) were towards EU companies.

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

> This has nothing to do with anti-trust It has everything to do with anti-trust. Google's near-monopoly on search is dangerous, and they've abused it multiple times. Google News and Yelp are good examples: they would steal content (not just link to it as they'd have you believe), then threaten to delist the victim's sites if they complained.

muro 12y ago
Google News shows a snippet + link to original page, just like search. The difference is that it groups articles about the same thing together. I don't understand your argument.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  That's not always been the case. Google News used to copy the entire article content.