The Verge: Google under antitrust investigation by 50 attorneys general

The Verge reports that 50 attorneys general from US states and territories signed onto an antitrust investigation into Google, placing even more pressure on the major tech firm that is already facing intense scrutiny over its market dominance from the government. They cite Open Markets' Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard's statement on the news: “We haven’t seen a major monopolization case against a tech giant since Microsoft was sued in 1998. Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era.”

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The great break-up of Big Tech is finally beginning

Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller published a piece on The Guardian on the heels of news that U.S. state attorneys general are launching a bipartisan investigation into Facebook and Google. “These corporations have become too powerful to be contained by democratic societies,” he writes. “We must work through our government to break them up and regulate our information commons, or they will end up becoming our government and choosing what we see and know about the world around us.”

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Open Markets Applauds State Attorneys General Historic Bipartisan Investigation into Google

“We applaud the 50 attorneys general for taking this unprecedented stand against Big Tech by uniting to investigate Google’s destruction of competition in search and advertising,” said Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy in a statement. “Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era.”

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The Telegraph: Google could be this century's Standard Oil - will it be broken up?

Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard speaks with The Telegraph about what a big tech probe by the U.S. attorneys general would mean and how the law could be leveraged against Google. Any upcoming probe into Google would also rely on the Sherman Act, and proving that the search giant has both “monopoly power and exclusionary conduct” says Hubbard.

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WIRED: Fines Alone Aren't Enough to Slow Down Big Tech

The FTC could do more to punish companies like Google and Facebook over privacy violations. But the bigger problem is that Congress continues to do nothing at all. "Often the problem with privacy issues is that the FTC's authority is limited, but here the FTC's authority under COPPA is ample," says Sally Hubbard, director of strategic enforcement at the nonprofit Open Markets Institute told WIRED.

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POLITICO: Inside the media industry’s struggle to take on Silicon Valley

POLITICO's Nancy Scola and Margaret Harding McGill report that U.S. news companies are using a playbook from Europe to challenge the online platforms they see as an existential threat. They speak to Open Markets Director of Enforcement Strategy Sally Hubbard who says "I think the bargaining power between any individual publisher and a tech platform is just too vast.”

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Accommodating Capital and Policing Labor: Antitrust in the Two Gilded Ages

Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan published an article in the Maryland Law Review on how antitrust law protected capital and punished labor in the original Gilded Age and in the second Gilded Age in which we live. Although the specific doctrines and rules today are different than they were a century ago, antitrust is once again doing little to check corporate domination of markets and also preventing a significant fraction of the labor force from organizing.

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Jalopnik: Uber And Lyft Take A Lot More From Drivers Than They Say

Jalopnik reporters Dhruv Mehrotra and Aaron Gordon publish an investigation showing just how much money Uber and Lyft take from their drivers. They speak to Open Markets Legal Director Sandeep Vaheesan who told them: “This is really fascinating and troubling,” Vaheesan went on to say the findings “support the argument that their business model is built on large scale labor exploitation.”

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Bloomberg: Google Parent’s Investing Arm Battles Suspicion in Profit Quest

Bloomberg reporters John Gittelsohn and Gerrit De Vynck reports on how CapitalG, a private investment arm of Alphabet has been in all the right places lately, generating billions of dollars in gains. The success is raising questions about the company’s strategy and sprawling influence over the technology industry. They speak with Open Markets Senior Fellow Matt Stoller who told them: “Deal flow gives you a lot of insight into what other people are doing in the market.”

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Benefits Pro - Wanted: More Health Care Competition

Benefits Pro reporter Scott Woolridge reports that the consolidation of market share in health-related industries has happened largely under the radar. He cites Open Markets' American Concentration Crisis report and interviews Executive Director Barry Lynn on how consolidation is impacting every day Americans. “This stuff could be fixed by the DOJ and the FTC tomorrow,” he says. “There is an ample amount of power in federal and state governments to address this, it’s just not being used.”

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