Google's Antitrust Problems Not Just In The US
from the google-rears-its-head dept
As Google not-so-eagerly awaits the US Justice Department's word on whether or not it's violating antitrust laws, it appears that the fear of Google-as-a-monopoly is not just a domestic US issue. There are a bunch of headlines about how Russia's antitrust agency has rejected Google's purchase of an ad agency in that country. Technically, the claim is that Google didn't file the proper paperwork, but the agency made it clear that it's worried about Google becoming monopolistic. Of course, as with the Google-Yahoo deal, it's unclear what the "monopoly" is that's being dealt with here or how people are harmed. It seems like this might just be a general "must fear Google" position, than anything based on an actual problem.
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Filed Under: advertising, antitrust, russia
Companies: google
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Also, although I don't know about in other countries, but here in the U.S, I wonder if the current situation with Google has even the slightest to do with them not giving the govt. see their searches. Granted, I think that was a while back but....
Well. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll just go sit in the corner with my tin foil dunce hat on now. No need to tell me I'm an idiot. :)
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I guess we'll know the truth in a few years when PBS does a documentary that shows these things to be true.
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Read the Sherman and Clayton Acts and you just might be able to appreciate how "monopoly" under antitrust law has an entirely different meaning from how the word is used on this site.
BTW, the above Acts are not limited to just mergers and acquisitions.
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Quite familiar with both, MLS, but as we have pointed out in the past, there are serious problems with antitrust law that allows people to call something a monopoly when it's not.
Again, we have reached this stalemate where you, MLS, insist that everything is fine because of what the law says. We're pointing out why that doesn't make sense.
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If you're that familiar with antitrust law, then you wouldn't be questioning why the Google-Yahoo deal would be considered a potential violation of said law.
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It has nothing to do with laws
So in this case, it can be 2 things. Either bribes for russian goverment officials wasn't big enough (yes, you can't make any big deal here in Russia without substantial bribes for various goverment agencies)or goverment was used by competitors to stop deal to protect their own business (there are very powerfull people among Yandex shareholders for example).
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By the way yandex stil seems to be more usefull for me than google (i`m russian)
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Google
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