anticompetitive

WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it plans to expand its use of a century-old statute that could allow the agency to bring more lawsuits against what it sees as anticompetitive corporate behavior.The move—broadening its interpretation of the 1914 law that created the FTC—opens the door to more legal challenges against businesses engaging in alleged coercive or deceptive conduct that undermines competition, Chairwoman Lina Khan said in a briefing with reporters.…

Google is facing another fine for allegedly misusing its control of Android to suppress competition. CNET reports India's Competition Commission has fined Google the equivalent of $161.9 million for supposedly giving its Android apps an edge using restrictive terms. The company imposes an "unfair condition" on phone makers by requiring that they preinstall Google apps as part of agreements, according to officials. That, in turn, is said to discourage companies from developing heavily modified Android variants that rely…

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg: Filing: in its case against Meta's Within acquisition, the FTC asks a judge to remove some allegations of anticompetitive effects in the VR fitness app market — The US Federal Trade Commission is narrowing its case against Meta Platforms Inc.'s proposed acquisition of virtual reality app Within Unlimited, according to a court filing. Leah Nylen / Bloomberg: Filing: in its case against Meta's Within acquisition, the FTC asks a judge to remove some allegations of…

MEXICO CITY -Apple and Alphabet's Google are facing a probe over anti-competitive practices in Mexico after the country's former telecommunications chief filed a complaint, he said in a statement on Twitter on Friday. The complaint was brought to Mexico's telecommunications regulator IFT yesterday by Mony de Swaan Addati, who once headed the former telecommunications federation that was later replaced by IFT. His complaint accuses Apple and Google of "completely inhibit(ing) competition" by "taking advantage of their…

Apple, Google, Netflix, Microsoft and Amazon India's top executives will meet the government's parliamentary panel today at 2.30pm IST to discuss the anti-competitive practices in the digital space in the country. According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance's chairman Jayant Sinha, the panel has summoned the representatives from Indian arms of these tech giants to look into various competition aspects in the digital marketplace. The committee has previously met and discussed the same with representatives…

China's trade and commerce associations have described the US government's semiconductor bill as a barrier to global innovation and economic recovery. They further urge business communities to take measures to protect their interests and mitigate the impact of the new bill.Signed into law on Tuesday, the US Chips and Science Act seeks to boost the country's semiconductor manufacturing industry and pump investment in research and development, science, and technology. It includes $52.7 billion in subsidies and funds aimed…

Iowa’s Affinity Credit Union is suing Apple over what it alleges is anticompetitive conduct in how it operates Apple Pay. This may turn into a class action lawsuit and is similar to a charge in the EU last year. The charge is this – Apple “coerces” owners of its phones, tablets and watches to use Apple Pay and prevents other payment services from competing on its platforms. This has lead to 4,000 banks and credit unions in the US to use Apple Pay and pay at least $1 billion of excess fees each year. Apple charges a…

Draft EU rules to curb the power of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet unit Google, and Facebook should also tackle providers of cloud computing services for possible anti-competitive practices, a study said on Tuesday. The report comes amid concerns that some EU lawmakers who are reviewing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposed by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager may be lenient towards cloud computing companies.Amazon's Amazon Web Services was the leading provider in the second quarter, followed by Microsoft Azure and Google…

Germany's competition regulator on Tuesday initiated a proceeding against Google and its parent company Alphabet to examine possible anti-competitive behaviour by Google Maps against rival map services providers.The probe by the Federal Cartel Office (FCO) against Google Maps is initiated under tougher abuse laws which have applied to Google's business in Germany since January this year."We have information to suggest that Google may be restricting the combination of its own map services with third-party map services, for…

US chipmaker Qualcomm on Wednesday won its fight against a EUR-997-million (roughly Rs. 8,170 crore) fine imposed by EU antitrust regulators four years ago for paying Apple to use only its chips and blocking out rivals such as Intel.The European Commission in its 2018 decision said the anti-competitive practice took place from 2011 to 2016, with Qualcomm paying billions of dollars to Apple to use its chips in all its iPhone handsets and iPad tablets.The General Court, Europe's second-highest, annulled the EU finding,…