
Why Google’s monopoly abuse case in Europe will run and run - Tomte
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/05/google-antitrust-case-europe-details-analysis/
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johansch
In my experience many/most Americans dislike Google (because they don't trust
huge companies that have lots of personal data - this is sane.).

However, those same Americans will often become really hostile towards the EU
if there is any claim of monopoly abuse from a European company.

So far I do think the EU has been fair to Google.

A parallel can be found in the EU browser monopoly case. Opera spearheadead
that case. The criticism here was massive. Then Mozilla joined - suddenly it
wasn't primarily a EU vs US thing, but more of a company vs company thing, and
the attitude changed quite a bit.

(I just enjoy pointing out hypocrisy.)

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dmoy
Do you have any data on the majority disliking Google thing? Most people I
talk to are completely unaware of internet privacy concerns, let alone using
that to form opinion of dislike about companies (of those that do, it's
usually the anti government crowd). But both your and my anecdotes are just
that...

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johansch
No, it's just anecdotal from my experience online.

I do feel that I have felt a very heavy nationalistic response from americans
in the past, e.g. during the time of that browser ballot, for example. This
always struck a nerve with me.. that americans would find it more probable
that the nasty foreign europeans would try to get more money out of the
americans, than the to more obvious fact that these companies were committing
obvious anti-competition crimes.

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Nomentatus
The essence of the law in question lies in the following quote, saying that a
monopoly can act in the market so long as that action "doesn't prevent
competition on the merits and does not harm consumers and innovation."

I just wanted to note, as a clarification, that it is important not to
conflate diversity and competition. Diverse standards - for example multiple
gauges for railways - STIFLE competition by creating lock-in and silos. That's
why governments tend to enforce or at least encourage standards, including
units for measurement and screw sizes, FRAND licensing, etc, rather than
vigorously taking companies to court to prevent standards from forming.
Diversity isn't necessarily a sign of a healthy marketplace, nor common
standards or technology proof of an unhealthy one.

Unfortunately a large chunk (including the app store, and lots more) of what
we call Android is NOT open source, and not a standard others are free to
adopt. Unity is enforced and bundling insisted on. Google seems to have
believed that highly illegal bundling wasn't highly illegal bundling if
neither consumers nor corporations (OEMs) were directly charged for it. Where
they got this fantasy I can't possibly imagine, it has not the slightest basis
in law nor ever did. Yet Google remain mesmerized by this whimsical and
entirely invented bit of logic.

Harm to competition is "the dog that didn't bark." Of course we can't point to
all the innovations that didn't happen - because they didn't happen; and yes
Google can point to a few scraggly competitors that have somehow held on by
their fingernails, and to the silo of Apple users locked in to a different
network effect. But the harm done has been profound.

Excellent article.

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hosh
Given what I have been hearing on the voice/chat bots/digital assistants, it
seems to me the landscape of competition is already shifting.

Amazon Echo. Potentially bypassing Google for people searching for things.

Viv. Same.

Google. Kubernetes, GCE, open sourced Tensor Flow, revealed TPU and how
AlphaGo ran on it, right around Allo and Google Assistant.

Apple Siri. Have not heard from Apple, but I doubt they are just twiddling
their thumbs.

Facebook.

Microsoft. Maybe they will bring a working Clippy back.

And lots of other chat/voice AIs. There are different advantages to each.
Competition here is heating up.

Just as how smartphones changed how we primarily access information, voice-
first interfaces will as well. How will ads work in this world?

The antitrust regulators seem a tempo beat behind. Same with that shopping
comparison site.

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ocdtrekkie
In typical Ars fashion, this is a pretty comprehensive summary of the case so
far.

