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USDOJ Sniffing Google Antitrust Suit, Hires Ex-Disney Lawyer
Van Cutter Romney was one of several to write with the story that "The Justice department has secretly hired former Walt Disney lawyer Sanford Litvack for a possible antitrust suit against Google. As reported earlier, the Justice Department is investigating the deal between Google and Yahoo which accounts for 80% of online search advertising. The Wall Street Journal writes today that Justice Department lawyers have been deposing witnesses and issuing document subpoenas for weeks — but that doesn't necessarily mean a case will be brought."
Technically speaking on the air bag issue, the NHTSA required that driver and passenger 2nd generation airbags be mandatory in vehicles made after 1998. There was some specification on the airbags but where the Big Three were getting sued was that their airbags tended to be a bit more aggressive than airbags made by other manufacturers. There airbags did fall under the NHTSA specifications though. I think the Big Three modified their airbags with kill switches and sensors, etc. Also at the time, it was not recommended that children not be seated in the front seat.
So on the Google issue, the deal may have been approved by the FCC, but do we know if any laws were broken outside the deal? Remember, MS wasn't prosecuted for being a monopoly but rather for abusing its monopoly power over rivals and partners.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Note that Sanford ("Sandy") Litvack, now 72 years old, was an Assistant Attorney General for the Carter administration, where he headed the DoJ Antitrust Division. His first job after law school was as a trial attorney for the DoJ Antitrust Division in the Eisenhower administration. This will be his second return from private practice to assist the DoJ.
My first reaction was that this has Microsoft written all over it
Same with me. My idea is that M$ is starting an international campaign against Google. Hint: Just a few days ago, the TAGESSCHAU (dominant news-show here in Germany) warned against using Chrome on the basis of an 'official' statement of some gov institution describing Chrome as an immature product, at the same time mentioning that no one company should have a monopoly on data. I do not recall a similar incident regarding M$.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Is it just me, or does everything in the US start with secret allegations that are insane, completely disproven before they're even made public, and yet still acted upon fiercly only to suffer humilation in the end?
It's just you.
Advice: on VPS providers
"Remember, MS wasn't prosecuted for being a monopoly but rather for abusing its monopoly power over rivals and partners."
That is the only thing you can be prosecuted for, it is not illegal to be a monopoly, only to abuse monopoly powers...
... just the ABUSE of them. Think of all the niche markets where somebody has a monopoly on it. If there is evidence of Google abusing their "monopoly" in search and advertising to get a stranglehold on other markets, then having the DOJ look into it is a good thing. So they've got 80% of the online advertising market with the deal with Yahoo; good for them. Are they abusing it somehow? Artificially inflating advertising prices? Any examples?