Re:Behind a Secret Deal Between Google and Facebook
by weare138 on Sunday January 17, 2021 @10:07PM
(#25817682)
>Its not illegal to have or consolidate market power AFAIK
Well using your previous example of Intel giving Dell volume discounts versus a small vendor, yes that in itself is legal. But don't forget AMD successfully sued Intel under antitrust laws for giving discounts to major vendors like Dell in exchange for preferential use of Intel chips over other competing chip makers.
This deal between Google and Facebook is strikingly similar. Google is giving preferential treatment to Facebook that it doesn't currently offer to other ad buyers and access to analytical data it also doesn't provide to other ad buyers in exchange for Facebook committing to spend a certain amount of money on Google ads. But more damning, according the article, "the two companies had predetermined that Facebook would win a fixed percentage of auctions that it bid on." This clearly gives Facebook an unfair competitive edge over other advertisers and amounts to quid pro quo, which is illegal, just like the Intel antitrust suit.
Well using your previous example of Intel giving Dell volume discounts versus a small vendor, yes that in itself is legal. But don't forget AMD successfully sued Intel under antitrust laws for giving discounts to major vendors like Dell in exchange for preferential use of Intel chips over other competing chip makers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices,_Inc._v....
This deal between Google and Facebook is strikingly similar. Google is giving preferential treatment to Facebook that it doesn't currently offer to other ad buyers and access to analytical data it also doesn't provide to other ad buyers in exchange for Facebook committing to spend a certain amount of money on Google ads. But more damning, according the article, "the two companies had predetermined that Facebook would win a fixed percentage of auctions that it bid on." This clearly gives Facebook an unfair competitive edge over other advertisers and amounts to quid pro quo, which is illegal, just like the Intel antitrust suit.