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Is free an antitrust issue?

Friday, July 10, 2009
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Labels: Competition , Public Policy Blog

8 comments :

  1. Myron WarachJuly 12, 2009 at 8:16 AM

    Perhaps... the answer is that nothing is free. Everything has a cost (i.e. "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch" - Milton Friedman).

    Google's free products capture mind share and entice folks to the Google search sponsored links. Is this cost an antitrust issue? From a user's perspective my answer is no.

    Just wondering: Does the Chrome OS allow installation of the IE browser?

    http://googcomments.blogspot.com

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  2. DrazisilJuly 12, 2009 at 2:22 PM

    I don't see how the Chrome OS would allow the install of IE since it is linux-based and I don't think that Microsoft makes a linix version of Internet Explorer. Do they?

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  3. Scott ClelandJuly 13, 2009 at 3:25 PM

    Mr. Wagner,

    The more appropriate question for your post would have been, "Can Free be an antitrust issue?" rather than the straw man title: "Is free an antitrust issue?"

    You are right that free is generally pro-consumer, but not always as you undoubtedly appreciate. Since you blogged on the question, it is relevant to ask you if any of Google's free products could be an antitrust issue?
    I think the answer could be yes, if they are determined to foreclose competition by neutralizing search complements that could represent significant potential competition to Google or have the potential to obsolete the boundaries of the search marketplace that the DOJ has found that Google dominates.
    For those that would like to explore this question and related points more in depth, I did a white paper on the subject:
    http://googleopoly.net/googleopoly_2.pdf see part D.1. page 8 for the part directly relevant to the question raised by Mr. Wagner's post.

    Scott Cleland, Precursor LLC

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  4. Marcelo CameloJuly 14, 2009 at 10:12 PM

    "Just wondering: Does the Chrome OS allow installation of the IE browser?"

    Chrome OS will be open source. So Microsoft could not only adapt IE to run on it but also replace Chrome for IE.

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  5. UnknownJuly 22, 2009 at 9:35 AM

    @myronw

    Chrome OS is a browser...the whole idea behind it is related cloud computing, aka. everything you need is online.

    @Wagner

    While I understand that 'free' is superb for the consumer, 'free' is not desirable for competition and that's the main focus of anti-trust issues ('they' don't care about the consumer...). I feel like the end result of all this 10 years down the line will be A) removal of preferential search results for Google sponsored apps B) some concession to the competition with regards to the 'secret' search algorithms.

    It's not pretty but anti-trust is about competition and the fact is 'free' is never really free. Someone has to pay the bills and someone else is losing a sale.

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  6. Marcelo CameloJuly 22, 2009 at 7:48 PM

    @pink

    Chrome OS is not a browser, it's an OS (albeit with an Browser centric UI).

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  7. TianJuly 23, 2009 at 10:46 PM

    @Marcelo

    Cloud computing revolves around a way to access your applications and personal files on the internet. Whether you wanna call it an OS or browser is a matter of semantics. But Google is in the business of redefining the norm so it's no doubt you'll have a more difficult time differentiating between the two.

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  8. AnonymousJune 3, 2010 at 9:59 PM

    by charliechoosy December 21, 2009 5:12 PM PST
    Cleave two issues that are related but distinct:

    (1) Is Google violating antitrust laws/principles?

    It's really hard to say. As their chief "competition" counsel has pointed out on a number of occasions, market power in itself is not actionable AND cross-subsidization is not contrary to antitrust law (at least not yet). Fair enough, boy wonder.

    That said, Google dominates the online advertising world - which is increasingly the most important space for advertising products and services to a world that is increasingly dominated by wireless access and (for lack of a better turn of phrase) "digital existence." It's also clear from Google's recent products (Chrome), services/products (Book Search), and acquisitions that it intends to be everyone's one-stop-shop for information on the Internet.

    What this means, essentially, is that Google, despite its relative youth, may be a company whose dominance may require antitrust law and doctrine to change radically to ensure that access to information is democratic, equitable, and provided in a competitive environment that is reasonably friendly to new entrants. Put another way: Why think that antitrust law has to be a time-bound relic, rather than an ever-changing and dynamic set of principles through which courts can help foster competition?

    (There are more dots to connect in the argument I just made, but I haven't the time to connect them.)

    (2) Does Google have good leadership on the antitrust front?

    G has certainly made some smart moves. They removed ES from the Apple BOD, and made some important concessions in connection with the Book Search Deal.

    However, those are simply decisions made ex post on the basis of political and legal considerations that were, at the time, easy to interpret. G, in other words, was forced to take those steps, so patting G on the back for making obviously correct choices would be a bit silly.

    Here's the problem with G's approach to their antitrust woes: The competition team seems to be making some very large blunders in the way it is presenting G's case. Instead of really trying to work with regulators, they claim:

    - that G is not that big;

    - that G's size or success has nothing to do with a lack of healthy competition in a properly defined market; and

    - that new incumbents could knock G out at any moment.

    All of these claims are a bit of a stretch, if not false on their face. This reveals the arrogance of G and the inability of its internal legal team to see how the rest of the world views G (which is quite different from how G views its own role - or should I say mission - in the world). And it does G no good to make these dubious claims publicly, even though lawyers with a certain caste of mind are keen to grandstand in just this way.

    But what's more, G's competition counsel has made a number of ludicrous public statements, drawing on absurd metaphors (competition is just a click away, G wants to be Santa Claus, etc.) in a way that hurts G's case and makes it seem like G does not really take the regulators (or the need for robust competition) seriously.

    In the final analysis, G is a company that may not be violating existing antitrust law. But its arrogance and the narrow-mindedness of its internal legal team could lead regulators to expand antitrust law if they view G's mission as one that is inconsistent with the broad principles that underlie extant antitrust law and policy.

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