Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by hangonhn on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:10PM
(#24150832)
Dumb question but if there is no collusion between the companies in a duopoly, is it still illegal in the US? Or does it have to be a monopoly to be illegal?
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Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by grandmczeb on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:35PM
(#24151170)
Monopolies aren’t illegal per se in the US if they were acquired lawfully. What’s illegal is using monopoly power in a prohibited way. However, collusion (even tacit collusion) can be illegal even if there’s no monopoly by a single company, e.g., market sharing[1].
Note: Not a legal expert, this is just my understanding.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by amiga_500 on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:18PM
(#24150940)
They both carefully added up all their costs and each independently arrived at a fair 30% fee, even though entire physical supply chains can undercut this percent.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by asldkjaslkdj on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:30PM
(#24151089)
This happens often without direct collusion. You see it commonly in retail. Not sure anyone can outlaw unspoken pricing standoffs like this.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by amiga_500 on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:34PM
(#24151160)
They can do it indirectly by breaking them up.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by asldkjaslkdj on Thursday August 13, 2020 @08:02PM
(#24151497)
There are already alternative app stores on Android (perhaps most notably, Amazon) and that hasn't impacted their 30%... so what exactly are you expecting?
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by RealStickman_ on Friday August 14, 2020 @02:25AM
(#24154398)
These alternative App Stores are heavily restricted when it comes to updating or even just installing apps, unless they were installed into the system and the system was patched by the OEM.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by not2b on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:20PM
(#24150969)
They are different markets. If you have an iPhone you must use Apple's store, Google's store is not competition for that market. For Google, use of the store is not required, but there's a risk to side-loading because ideally there would be competing stores that also do quality control and security audits, and there aren't. So it isn't a duopoly, it's one absolute monopoly and one near-monopoly.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by nradov on Thursday August 13, 2020 @07:38PM
(#24151216)
The legal definition of a "market" is always going to be somewhat subjective and arbitrary. I doubt whether a US federal court would define the market the same way you did.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by dragonwriter on Thursday August 13, 2020 @08:21PM
(#24151659)
The predominant test is market or pricing power, whether the people you are selling the good or service move to putative competitors in response to pricing/conditions changes you make. If Apple makes their terms more onerous, does it drive purchasers of their app distribution service to the Play Store? If not, they aren't competing in the same market.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by nradov on Thursday August 13, 2020 @08:29PM
(#24151727)
Epic Games hasn't purchased any app distribution services from Apple or Google. Epic is the vendor here, not the customer. The money flows from Apple to Epic.
What Apple is doing feels unfair, but making an antitrust case against them is going to be a stretch with current laws.
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by not2b on Friday August 14, 2020 @03:21PM
(#24162149)
If I want to buy a game to play on my phone, and there is only one seller, it's a monopoly. Yes, I could buy a new phone, and then buy the game from a different store. But then I'd be buying a different product (Fortnite for Android instead of Fortnite for iPhone).
Re:Fortnite seems to have been removed from the Play Store a...
by nradov on Friday August 14, 2020 @05:17PM
(#24163397)
It depends on how the court decides to define the market. Is the market limited to Fortnite on Apple devices? All games on Apple devices? Fortnite on all devices? All video games everywhere? The laws and precedents provide some general guidance but there's no clear and simple procedure defined for deciding what constitutes the "market" in the context of a particular case. Don't presume to know what a court will decide. In particular the legal concept of a product doesn't work the way you describe.